CHINA’S ELITE YOUTH CLASS STILL MINING BITCOIN IN FACE OF GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS

Regardless of all efforts made by China’s central government to discourage bitcoin miners in China, miners in Sichuan, Qinghai Province and other distant interior regions of China are still showing persistence.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported earlier that the investors behind the Qinghai Province mining facilities are rich, young individuals known as ‘fuerdai’ and who are the children of the elite, rich Chinese class, which includes army and officials of China’s Communist Party and other leaders.

Both Sichuan and Qinghai Province are poor provinces, as compared to the economic centers, such as Beijing and Shanghai. Bitcoin mining in these remote regions creates new job opportunities and employment for the poor communities, as well as revenue for the government. Bitcoin mining is also more feasible in these poorer provinces, due to cheap and greatly subsidized electricity there

The authorities in China, according to Nikkei’s evaluation, have overlooked the mining activity due to the reason that they want to exercise better control over money flow abroad, in order to counter the worldwide impact the US has via the US Dollar($).

China still has a projected 70% control worldwide over Bitcoin mining operations. Only last week, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple spoke out that the cryptocurrency is being “controlled by China.” China is also the most populated country in the world. Cheap electricity is a main cause for hosting mining operations in China and other potential regions for mining lie in coal-rich Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.

China is also the second largest economy in the world and hosts the top manufacturers of encryption devices and technology, such as Bitmain Technologies. Such prominent manufacturing entities have already started some of the world’s biggest mining setups in Inner Mongolia, where coal is abundant. Electricity is also cheap in Inner Mongolia cities, such as Ordos. Bitmain buys electricity from Ordos at the rate of $ 0.04 per kWh, a figure that is way below electricity rates worldwide.