China's central government vowed last week to crack down on
bitcoin mining and trading, while this week Inner Mongolia, also a major mining
centre, proposed measures to root out the business. Such measures are
accelerating a shift of mining activities to North America and Central Asia.
An official at the Sichuan Energy Regulatory Office of
National Energy Administration told Reuters that Sichuan was not the only
province gathering information on cryptomining.
But the official, who is not authorized to speak to the
media, declined to say whether Sichuan would announce measures to crack down on
the practice following the meeting with power companies. Chinese media reported
earlier that Sichuan would hold a seminar on cryptomining on June 2.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are created or
"mined" by high-powered computers competing to solve complex
mathematical puzzles in an energy-intensive process that often relies on fossil
fuels, particularly coal.
Cryptomining is a big business in China, accounting for over
half of global cryptocurrency supply. But the power-hungry business could
hinder China in meeting carbon-neutrality goals, according to some analysts.
The annual energy consumption of China's bitcoin industry is
expected to peak in 2024 at about 297 terawatt-hours, exceeding the total power
consumption level of Italy and Saudi Arabia in 2016, according to a study
recently published in scientific journal Nature Communications.
Sichuan, rich in hydropower resources, is China's
second-biggest bitcoin mining province after Xinjiang, contributing to nearly
10% of China's hashrate, or computing power, in April, according to data
compiled by the University of Cambridge.
0 comments:
Post a Comment