Wu said weekly mining information: 0221-0227

1.

According to China News Network, Guangzhou Huangpu Customs introduced on the 21st that recently, Dongguan Customs under the customs seized a total of 49 second-hand virtual currency Antminers that were falsely declared for export through the delivery channel, and the declared product name was "shoe materials". Due to the false declaration of the goods, all of them have been detained in accordance with the law and are awaiting further disposal. According to the Weibo of the General Administration of Customs of China on February 7: Recently, Wuhan Tianhe Airport Customs unpacked and inspected a batch of export goods declared as "servers" and found that the goods were actually 46 virtual currency mining machines. At present, the customs has transferred the above goods to relevant departments for further processing.

2.

According to a detailed report by wccftech, Intel disclosed the details of its mining chip BonanzaMines at ISSCC. It uses a 7nm chip and is still a first-generation product. The details of the second-generation product were not disclosed. The first-generation product was quietly launched in 2018.

Intel announced that 300 BonanzaMines dedicated crypto mining computers provide 40 THash/s computing power with a power consumption of 3,600 watts. But it also said that the system can achieve higher rates if necessary. Intel compared BonanzaMines to Bitfury Clarke and Canaan Avalon A9 during the conference. Intel emphasized that the BonanzaMine system exhibits an energy efficiency ratio of 55 J/TH at 47.7 TH/s.

In comparison, Bitmain's latest mining machine S19XP uses TSMC's 5nm chip, has a computing power of 150TH/s, a power consumption of 3225W, and an energy efficiency ratio of up to 21.5J/TH. Wu said that Intel's second-generation mining chip products can achieve an energy efficiency ratio of about 35J/TH, and currently have orders from Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (formerly known as Square) and GRIID Infrastructure.

3.

According to China Times, regarding the differential electricity price policy for virtual currency "mining" in many places, Zhejiang Government Service Center stated that after verification by the Development and Reform and Economic Information Bureau of Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, virtual currency "mining" activities are still not allowed. The document is a supporting penalty policy, and the investigated units need to pay the increased electricity fees during the period of illegal behavior, which is implemented by power grid companies. China Times interpretation: This policy does not mean that "mining" is legal under high electricity prices, but that after being discovered, the electricity fees for previous mining must be calculated according to the differential electricity price policy and banned.

4.

According to BTC-ECHO, the latest proposal of the European Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee hopes to ban the provision of encryption services based on "environmentally unsustainable consensus mechanisms." The final decision on the draft will be made in Parliament on February 28. If passed, this may mean that from January 1, 2025, POW mining activities will not be allowed in the EU.

However, Stefan Berger, a member of the European Parliament's Economic Committee, later said that the government agency had canceled the vote on the Crypto Asset Market (MiCA) framework originally scheduled for Monday, and the Parliament needed to clarify the "Proof of Work POW issue" in discussions with stakeholders to ensure the establishment of an appropriate legal framework. Previously, many EU legislators and regulators have been calling for a ban on POW mining. (Cointelegraph)

5.

Dazhong Daily: Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on the Differential Electricity Price Policy for Virtual Currency "Mining" (Draft for Comments)" to solicit opinions from the public. According to the notice, it is planned to implement differentiated electricity prices for virtual currency "mining" electricity, with an increase of 2 yuan per kilowatt-hour (tax included). Previously, Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia, and Hainan increased the price by 0.5, 1, and 0.8 yuan respectively.

6.

Recently, the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on Establishing a Reporting Hotline for Rectifying Virtual Currency "Mining" Activities", announcing the supervision and reporting hotlines for rectifying virtual currency "mining" activities at the provincial and municipal levels. Virtual currency "mining" activities refer to the process of calculating and producing virtual currency through special "mining machines", and the scope is as follows: (1) virtual currency "mining" companies disguised as data centers; (2) companies and individuals that provide site rental and other services to companies engaged in virtual currency "mining" activities; (3) companies that obtain electricity supply through illegal means and engage in virtual currency "mining" activities; (4) companies, Internet cafes, etc. that conduct "mining" in various other hidden forms.

7.

In protest of Russia's war, FlexPool said it would cancel services for all Russian IPs and pay outstanding balances, apologizing to Russian miners for this. FlexPool is currently ranked fourth among Ethereum mining pools. Slush Pool, one of the top ten Bitcoin mining pools, announced the launch of a hashrate donation account, starting with 10BTC and 2.5P hashrate. The mining pool said its parent company is based in Prague, Czech Republic, and has a long history of Russian occupation, which is why they took action.

8.

According to bitcoinmagazine, Canadian clean technology bitcoin miner MintGreen has signed a 12-year contract to provide heat to North Vancouver's district energy system through their new "digital boiler" (which recycles more than 96% of the electricity used for mining) to heat commercial and residential buildings. Previously, they have been leading the waste reuse field by selling heat generated by mining to local breweries and sea salt distilleries.

9.

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy reported on Monday that regulators had discovered 13 illegal cryptocurrency mining farms in the country. The ministry said the discovery was made within five days of opening an investigation, with a total energy consumption estimated at 202 megawatts, and that the mines have now been banned from operating. (Daily Nigerian)

10.

Crypto mining operators in the United States remain committed to increasing their hashrate with more hardware. Marathon Digital Holdings and GEM Mining said they expect to grow the size of their respective operations by doubling their mining facilities by 2022.

Charlie Schumacher, vice president of corporate communications at Marathon Digital, said they plan to deploy 199,000 new mining machines by 2023. John Warren, CEO of GEM Mining, said the company plans to put 32,000 mining machines online by the end of 2022. (Cointelegraph)

11.

Glassnode data shows that Ethereum miner revenue has just reached an 18-month low of $202,766.09. The previous 18-month low was $220,757.87 on October 18, 2020.