Jul 16, 2021 21:00:00

It is clear that China's mining share had dropped significantly even before the government regulated cryptocurrencies

China has long been known as a center for mining factories for crypto assets (virtual currency) such as Bitcoin, but due to the

tightening of regulations on crypto assets launched by the Chinese government in May 2021, many mining It was reported that the factory had to be closed. But newly, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom points out that 'China's mining share had declined significantly before the government tightened regulations.'

New data reveals timeline of China's bitcoin mining exodus --News & insight --Cambridge Judge Business School
https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/insight/2021/new-data-reveals-timeline-of-chinas-bitcoin-mining-exodus/

University of Cambridge Bitcoin Mining Map Shows China's Hashrate Dropped to 46% – Mining Bitcoin News
https://news.bitcoin.com/university-of-cambridge-bitcoin-mining-map-shows-chinas-hashrate-dropped-to-46/

Since mining crypto assets requires a lot of electricity, China, where cheap electricity from coal-fired power generation and hydroelectric power generation is available, is a concentration of mining factories, and has a 60% share of the world's crypto asset mining. It was over.

However, in May, the Chinese government announced a policy to tighten regulations on cryptocurrency assets, and as a result of financial institutions actually suspending acceptance of cryptocurrency assets and banning mining, mining companies in China have to go out of business. I couldn't get it. As a result, the price of Bitcoin has fallen sharply, and the difficulty of mining Bitcoin (difficulty) has been adjusted significantly negatively, which has had the effect of increasing the profits of existing Bitcoin operators. I will.

Bitcoin mining difficulty is greatly reduced, and it is predicted that 'the profit of mining companies will increase by 35%' --GIGAZINE

Meanwhile, the 'Cambridge Bitcoin Power Consumption Index (CBECI) ' published by the University of Cambridge was updated, and it became a hot topic that China's mining share had dropped significantly before the government tightened regulations. is. CBECI is an independent platform that provides information and insights on the power consumption of mining against the backdrop of growing concerns about the sustainability and environmental impact of Bitcoin mining.

The image below shows the hash rate ratio of each country from September 2019 to April 2021 calculated by CBECI in color. As of September 2019, China (yellow) accounted for 75.5% of the total hash rate in the world, but that percentage began to gradually decrease from the beginning of 2020, and from October 2020. Has fallen below 60% and has already dropped to 46% as of April 21, 2021. This shows that the share of mining was declining before the regulations by the Chinese government got into full swing. In the same period, the share of the United States (blue) increased from 4.1% to 16.8% to become the second largest in the world, and Kazakhstan (light blue), which has abundant fuel resources, increased from 1.4% to 8.2% to become the third largest in the world. I did. As of April 2021, Russia (brown) is in fourth place with 6.8%, and Iran (green) is in fifth place with 4.6%.

In addition, CBECI has newly partnered with BTC.com, Poolin, ViaBTC, and Foundry,

a mining pool where multiple businesses collaborate to mine, and will receive data. The datasets provided by the four mining pools account for 37% of the total computing power of the Bitcoin network, revealing more geographic details about mining.

This is a graph showing the transition of mining share in China from September 2019 to April 2021 released by CBECI, which is affiliated with the above mining pool. In particular, it can be seen that there is a large fluctuation between Sichuan (Sichuan Province) (yellow) located in southern China and Xinjiang (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) (brown) located in the northwestern part near Central Asia. 'The mining companies have moved in line with the dry season,' CBECI said. From October to April, when Sichuan is in the dry season, miners will move to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to use cheap electricity generated by coal-fired power generation. On the other hand, during the rainy season from May to September, Sichuan will move to Sichuan in search of cheaper electricity produced by hydroelectric power generation.

Although the seasonal movement patterns of mining companies in China were known as a kind of anecdote, this is the first time that they have actually been confirmed as data. However, as the Chinese government tightened regulations, mining was banned in major areas including Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province, so the pattern confirmed this time is expected to disappear in the future.