The main Chinese regulator of the online finance sector, the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation (the “Central Group to Counteract Financial Risks in the Network”), asked the provincial authorities to “give guidance” to companies engaged in crypto-currency mining to help them in “organize out” from business. Some of the largest Chinese miners already transfer operations outside the country, primarily to the USA and Canada. Major players doubt that government bans will have an effect, because the authorities on the ground have a powerful incentive to keep the mining farms, which make solid deductions to the budget such as taxes and electricity fees. Mining bitcoins in China is so profitable that even with a 50% decline in the rate of the crypto currency, the miners will earn good money.
Nevertheless, ViaBTC, a mining pool, said it curtails its digital currency business. On Monday, January 8, the company announced that already on January 10 it intends to close all the mining contracts. Without going into details, ViaBTC reported that it wants to cope with speculative operations and protect the interests of its investors.
A new home for many “crypto-currency refugees” could be Canada. Thus, the Canadian utility company Hydro Quebec is trying to attract mining companies to the Quebec area, promising them low electricity prices and liberal policy of the authorities regarding the production of crypto-currencies, and the Chinese mining giant in Bitmain Technologies is expanding at the expense of locating production facilities in Switzerland.
The Expert Council of the State Duma of the Russian Federation supported the project on the development of blockchain technology in the Udmurt Republic. The first deputy governor of the region Alexander Svinin said that Udmurtia is ready to take an active part in “preparing and testing the legislative base for the mining of digital currencies”. He also said that Sarapulskaya TPP, located in Udmurtia, could become the first private power station in the country for extracting digital currencies.
By the way, according to Morgan Stanley experts, now the mining of bitcoins uses more electricity than all electromobiles in the world.
