A logistic firm has confirmed that it is moving more than three metric tons of Bitcoin mining equipment to Maryland, USA, from China. The logistics delivery firm is located in Guangzhou and offers international shipping and door delivery services.
This development comes on the heels of China’s massive Bitcoin mining crackdowns. The country has had several crackdowns aimed at shutting Bitcoin mining operations in the country, with the most recent crackdown targeted at Sichuan province. The Chinese Government has also put laws to restrict Bitcoin mining processes in place. Recently, the People’s Bank of China said it had talks with Alibaba and other major financial institutions operating in the country, and urged them to restrict cryptocurrency payments on their platform.
There have been many speculations as to where the miners who were operational in China would either move to or move their facilities, and now it seems like the U.S. is the next point of call for Bitcoin mining.
According to the Chinese government, Bitcoin mining operations were being shut down because their mining processes consume a lot of electricity. This was the same reason Elon Musk-owned Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment for its electric vehicles.
China has been, over the years, trying to reduce pollution and its attendant effects. Bitcoin poses a threat to this goal, as it consumes a huge amount of electricity and uses fossil fuel energy. Fossil fuel is a huge reason for greenhouse gases which is one of the things that China is trying to eradicate.
For now, it cannot be concluded that the U.S. will become the new mining hub because of the mining equipment being moved there. The purpose for the mining rigs being moved there could be for storage purposes. One thing that we can be, however, sure of is that miners will be on the lookout for the same factors that they saw in China, in the new place that they decide to move to. These factors include low cost of energy, supply chain, technological advancements, etc.
Many miners have pulled the brakes on their mining operations in China. Some of them like Huobi Hall and POP, have announced intentions to continue operations from other locations.
China has allegedly recovered about 8 gigawatts of electricity after these mining farms were closed down.
