China continues to rely on aggressive bans against digital miners. Now the next province, Anhui, has declared mining illegal.
Miners in China are in a difficult position these days. Various provincial governments in the Middle Kingdom have been taking rigorous action against digital miners for months. Now the next region is Anhui. Like the news agency Reuters reported, authorities in the province announced plans to reduce growing electricity consumption in Anhui over the next three years. First and foremost, they want to prohibit any mining activities. In addition, future power-intensive projects would be carefully examined. In addition, new practices are planned for the construction of data centers and a reform of electricity prices.
According to local media, the ban was preceded by power supply bottlenecks. To what extent these can be attributed to the mining is questionable, because Anhui does not have a large share of the hashrate. However, according to media reports, much of the energy is generated from coal power. In this respect, it fits into Beijing’s narrative that they only want to regulate climate-damaging miners. China had previously imposed mining bans in regions with a high proportion of fossil fuels, such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.
Is China now completely banning mining?
The ban in Sichuan and Yunnan shows that China seems to have quickly forgotten its own principles. Due to the high proportion of hydrogen, both mining regions believed they were safe from regulatory intervention by the government. However, this changed suddenly when the provincial authorities ordered 26 mining farms to be closed in Sichuan in mid-June and also announced closings in Yunnan.
Like the Chinese journalist Colin Wu now reportst, should the State Grid Corparation of China, after all the largest energy supplier in the country, have clearly spoken out in favor of a general ban on all crypto mining activities. The most recent bans in Anhui, Gansu and Henan were then followed.
Miners are migrating
Meanwhile, more and more miners are leaving China. Various locations such as Kazakhstan, Miami or the US state of Wyoming attract digital miners with attractive conditions. For example, Republican Cynthia Lummis wrote down Twitter:
If you are in the Bitcoin mining sector, please get in touch. WE WANT you in Wyoming
Cynthia Lummis on Twitter
Meanwhile, the siren chant has already struck BIT Mining. A little over a month ago, one of the largest mining pools moved to the US state of Texas. Above all, cheap nuclear power is likely to have prompted the move. Around 25 million US dollars were invested in a new plant. At the same time, 2,600 ASICs (special graphics cards that are ideally suited for mining for crypto currencies) were exported to Kazakhstan. The company would prefer to rely on several horses in the future. It remains to be seen whether this strategy will also be adopted by other mining companies.