Bitcoin miners in the Chinese province of Sichuan are being pressured by authorities to scale down their operations due to electricity shortages.
According to a report by the Asia Times on Dec. 29, China’s dry season–which lasts from October to April–has caused a significant drop in the supply of electricity in Southwest China. Authorities in the region have begun to pressure bitcoin mining farms to scale back their operations, in response to the falling supply of cheap power.
The report claims authorities are concerned with prioritizing electrical demand,
Prioritizing “social electricity demand” is the stated purpose for the recent government focus on mining operations. Under normal circumstances, bitcoin farms coexist in symbiosis with hydropower stations, utilizing the excess energy they are capable of producing thanks to East Asia’s plum rain.
A meeting was scheduled Dec. 27 between regulators, the state-run grid operator and mining companies to discuss the issue of electricity and China’s increasing crackdown on bitcoin mining operations. While details on the meeting’s outcome have been unavailable, one representative of a mining operation said,
It’s not going to make a huge impact to mining in China.
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