Data: Crypto Mining In China Had A Sharp Fall Even Before Crackdown
New research data suggests that China’s share of global Bitcoin production dropped dramatically even before the country launched its latest crypto crackdown.
After the researchers from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) project said that the website’s “Bitcoin Mining Map” had not been updated since April 2020, the map has finally been updated.
Current data from the mining map shows the coverage goes all the way up until April 2021, and the estimate of China’s hashrate dominance is much lower than previous estimates. China’s share of the “hash rate” had fallen to 46% by April 2021, compared with 75.5% in September 2019.
Hash rate refers to the collective power of computers that are connected to the global Bitcoin network and involved in mining, the energy intensive process that validates transactions and results in new cryptocurrency being created.
This would mean that the CBECI map won’t account for the mass migration of Chinese bitcoin miners that followed the month of April.
However, the updated CBECI map does show China’s hashrate dominance in April was around 46%. That figure is a lot lower than the older estimate before the update which was 65%.
Over the same period of time, the U.S. became the second-biggest producer of Bitcoin in the world, with its share of the hash rate surging to 4% to 16.8% in just 18 months.
Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran also dominate the rankings, with some of these nations offering a cheap source of electricity for miners to use. However, the likes of Iran have sought to impose restriction on this activity amid fears that it was causing blackouts in the country’s cities.
The University of Cambridge researchers leverage sample data from geolocational mining facilities and several bitcoin mining pools. Partners that help contribute to the CBECI map include Poolin, Viabtc, Btc.com, and Foundry.
The CBECI map also highlights the “Evolution of Chinese provinces share” in another chart dedicated to these statistics. The dominance of Chinese provinces stem from areas like Sichuan (16.4%), Xinjiang (54.4%), Yunnan (8.7%), Nei Mongol (3.7%), Gansu (1.3%) Zhejiang (0.2%), Beijing (4.8%), Qinghai (2.3%), and unknown regions (8.1%).
Other than China, the U.S., and Kazakhstan, the CBECI map shows the Russian Federation has around 6.84% of the global hashrate. This is followed by unknown regions capturing 5.92%, Iran 4.64%, Malaysia 3.44%, Canada 3%, Germany 2.81%, and Ireland 2.27%.
