Why China Mines More Bitcoin

Miners, Reviews December 20, 2017 , by Steel Rose Comments Off 54

China has very cheap coal-based electricity and also a lot of extra hydro-capacity.So a number of hydro-facilities in provinces like Szechuan were developed in anticipation of new cities coming online to take advantage of this new inexpensive electricity.However that electricity is idle, it’s not being utilised so many hydro dam operators have gone into the cryptocurrency mining business and I think this is important to keep in mind as we think about the environmental impact of bitcoin.If that electricity is just going to waste it’s already less of a negative externality for bitcoin to be having this excess hydro-capacity used for bitcoin mining.

Source: Why China mines more Bitcoin than any other country – Business Insider