China is kicking out more than half the world's bitcoin miners - and they could be headed to Texas

[dalton99a]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/chinas-bitcoin-miner-exodus-.html

China is kicking out more than half the world’s bitcoin miners – and a whole lot of them could be headed to Texas
Published Tue, Jun 15 2021 2:12 PM EDT
MacKenzie Sigalos

China has long been home to more than half the world’s bitcoin miners, but now, Beijing wants them out ASAP.

In May, the government called for a severe crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, setting off what’s being dubbed in crypto circles as “the great mining migration.” This exodus is underway now, and it could be a game changer for Texas.

Mining is the energy-intensive process which both creates new coins and maintains a log of all transactions of existing digital tokens.

Despite a lack of reserves that caused dayslong blackouts last winter, Texas often has some of the world’s lowest energy prices, and its share of renewables is growing over time, with 20% of its power coming from wind as of 2019. It has a deregulated power grid that lets customers choose between power providers, and crucially, its political leaders are very pro-crypto – dream conditions for a miner looking for a kind welcome and cheap energy sources.

“You are going to see a dramatic shift over the next few months,” said Brandon Arvanaghi, previously a security engineer at crypto exchange Gemini. “We have governors like Greg Abbott in Texas who are promoting mining. It is going to become a real industry in the United States, which is going to be incredible.”

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Abbott: "What Texans need is bitcoins, not air conditioning"

[Wounded Bear]

1. I'm sure the Texas power grid is up for it...

just let a few grandmas die from heat exhaustion because they turned off their AC.

[2naSalit]

7. It would crash it for sure.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. I am assuming that these miner's are not Chinese nationals?

Can't see them allowing their native miner's to emigrate. If so, then bitcoin mining could be a real growth industry in China.

[ansible]

3. I think bitcoin really is done for good this time

Much of its past growth to $60k was because of China, now that the chinese are turning against it, the bull run is done.

[Initech]

4. Oh this is going to be a disaster.

[Klaralven]

5. Are they taking their mining equipment with them?

Mining economically requires using specially designed Application Specific Integrated Circuits.

Can they get the fab capacity to build new machines?

[joetheman]

6. In the name of getting rid of global corruption all bitcoin other crypto currency should be banned

[rockfordfile]

8. Get rid of bitcoin

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. Bitcoin "mining" consumes more electricity than Argentina

But hey, the currency of choice for Russian malware extortionists so I'm sure the Texas GOP will prove to be very accommodating.