Bitcoin Mining Farms Pose Problem For Beijing Government

According to a study published in the reputable magazine Nature, the Beijing government has a serious Bitcoin mining issue on its hands.

If the Middle Kingdom wants to become a global leader in terms of fighting against climate change, it has to explain to the rest of the world why it allows so much Bitcoin mining through cheap coal energy on its territory first.

The study entitled: Policy assessments for the carbon emission flows and sustainability of Bitcoin blockchain operation in China is highly critical of Beijing’s double stands when it comes to crypto.

On the one hand, the Communist government says crypto trading is forbidden, and on the other hand it allows Bitcoin mining through cheap (and polluting) coal energy.

The study claims that:

The annualized energy consumption of the Bitcoin industry in China will peak in 2024 at 296.59 Twh based on the Benchmark simulation of BBCE modeling. This exceeds the total energy consumption level of Italy and Saudi Arabia and ranks 12th among all countries in 2016

Inner Mongolia and Texas

In the past few months, we have noted how Chinese Bitcoin mining operations in Inner Mongolia were being shut down and how new mines opened up in the US state of Texas. This trend is mostly due to the fact that China has come to realize is has a problem on its hands due to the unclean image of its Bitcoin mines, which rely heavily on electricity from its polluting coal plans.

Wang Shouyang, who authored the study, is an assistant at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, does see a shift on the horizon. He explained that:

The intensive bitcoin blockchain operation in China can quickly grow as a threat that could potentially undermine the emission reduction effort.

Since energy prices in clean-energy regions of China are lower than that in coal-powered regions … miners would then have more incentives to move to regions with clean energy.

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