China plans to check the consumption of electricity by miners

An audit is planned in Beijing to reveal the impact of cryptocurrency mining on energy consumption. In particular, the Bureau of Economic and IT Technologies demanded data from datacenters on whether they are involved in mining and other operations related to cryptocurrency turnover.

The 3 largest and most significant telecommunications operators, which are known throughout the country, occupy a high position and have a great influence on the countrys economy, were called to account. The government became interested in whether these operators are engaged in the extraction of cryptocurrencies and, if the answer is positive, they are asked to inform how much electricity is consumed for this process.

The bureau confirmed this information in a message to the media, in particular, the official state company PengPai. Despite some unrest that caused these statements by the government among the masses of the common people, representatives of the press service of the bureau assured that at the moment this check does not threaten anyone or anything. This is just a study that should provide insight into the power consumption of mining. One of the journalists said that data centers are almost impossible to use for the production of serious cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, since this process requires too much energy and specialized powerful equipment. Therefore, mainly in such centers, only Filecoin based on Ethereum can mine. It is much easier to mine and does not require the installation of computers with high computing power. In theory, such mining does not consume a lot of electricity, but in this case, the government is interested in obtaining specific numbers. So far, this does not impose any obligations or penalties on data center employees, because the Bureau of Economics and IT Technologies just wants to know whats what. However, it is possible that if a report is received that does not meet expectations, certain measures will be taken with respect to the heads of the companies.

April 2021 was marked by natural disasters in some regions of the PRC, in particular, problems arose with electricity amid floods and a series of explosions that occurred in coal mines. Then these events greatly reduced the hash rate of the main mining pools of the BTC. After some time - just a few days - after the incidents, Bitcoin plummeted in price by as much as $ 9,000 and even more.