Gold Rush is fairly famous around the whole world. However, what is talked about in this article is a brand-new type in China. As cryptocurrency prevails globally, China has become the biggest mine field and Sichuan, a province in southwest, makes up the largest portion for cryptocurrency production when compared with other areas in China.
Here, the author will introduce the influence of mining upon energy consumption and Sichuan Province’s advantage in this aspect.
To begin with, what should undertake the major responsibility for energy depletion expenditure?
As we all know, mining heavily relies on GPU(graphics processing unit) working with an astonishing efficiency, which will devour a great amount of electricity. According to the data accumulated and acquired by University of Cambridge, mining of Bitcoin can consume 115.4TWh electricity annually, more greatly than Netherlands and Pakistan.
Furthermore, since virtual coins has a real price of us dollar, their increase will absolutely excite everyone’s nerve and encourage them to invest more.
To put it in a nutshell, mining is a direct approach to drain electrical power and commercial speculation will offer continuous motivation and momentum for the whole virtual market.
Again, according to the data from Cambridge, before China formally bans mining activities in any form, China produces the most virtual currencies in this world and Sichuan occupies the largest portion of the whole production domestically. According to the picture below, the peak made by Sichuan is 61.1% of the total output in China in September 2020.
So why Sichuan ranks top?
Please look at this picture:
This is the list of provinces that generate the most hydroelectricity in China. We could find that Sichuan and Yunnan almost undertake the whole responsibility.
It is known that hydro-electric power is a steady flow for electricity generation. Counting on waterflow, the hydropower station proves to be more sustainable than coal-fired one, especially during the period of energy transformation.
In addition, renting, noise from machines, and tremendous demand of electricity, three factors to a large extent disappoint investors who want to build a mining field in metropolis. On the contrary, mountainous areas by the river, faraway from residential areas in Sichuan or Yunnan, would be best choice for mining. With low rental price and plenty of electricity generated from hydropower stations, these solitary places in Sichuan quickly allures countless careerists to implement exploration.
Does mining possess legitimacy?
According to a new notification jointly announced by authorities including supreme people's procuratorate of PRC, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC, and other sectors, cryptocurrency trading and relevant speculation are officially banned in China due to its potential huge damage on regular economic order as well as its facilitation of gamble, illegal fundraising, Ponzi scheme, and money laundering.
We can easily perceive the nervousness of the authority and here is one more case. According to a report from the Xinhua News Agency, a company focusing on so-called “statistic business” in a west province of China was exposed to the public for merely paying 250K yuan per year while consuming 2.5 million KWH monthly, of which energy equals that of 15k tons of standard coal.
As most countries in this world have been focusing on energy transformation, during this period, waterpower would surely shoulder an irreplaceable duty to sustain this transition. Fighting illegal cryptocurrency production and related speculation activities would be much more important than many people once believe.
Original Chinese article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bXhIm6q6rS4JD3_fsqUYPA
Translator/ Kim
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