Wu said weekly mining information 0103-0109

1. In response to protests caused by fuel costs, Kazakhstan's telecommunications provider Kazakhtelecom recently shut down internet access across the country, causing the hash rate of many Bitcoin mining pools to drop. According to multiple news media reports, compared with the mining pool computing power half a day ago, the most affected were 1THash (down 82%), OKExPool (down 46.3%), and KuCoinPool (down 22.7%). The computing power of major mining pools including FishPool, AntPool, and ViaBTC also dropped by 12.8%, 11.6%, and 19.2%, respectively. According to an estimate by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance last fall, Kazakhstan has 18% of the world's Bitcoin computing power. In addition, as of this month, more than 100 mining companies have been registered in Kazakhstan. (the block)

2. Bitfufu, a subsidiary of Bitmain, issued a statement saying that due to the situation in Kazakhstan, the local electricity and network have been affected to varying degrees, resulting in power outages for some computing power orders on the platform. The mining time for the affected packages will be postponed at a 1:1 ratio.

3. Many Kazakh miners told Wu that the network in Kazakhstan was briefly restored for about 4 hours on January 7. In addition, the 4G network of Chinese operators was also intermittently effective. The industry expects that the whole country may return to normal next Monday. Because the current riots are mainly concentrated in the urban area of ​​Almaty, most miners are in remote areas. For the time being, there is no news that the miners' mines have been smashed and looted. It is just that mining cannot continue due to network interruption.

4. The Block reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the U.S. Congress is preparing hearings to examine the impact of crypto mining on the environment, especially on the Bitcoin network. In December, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to New York mining company Greenidge to express concerns about the company's environmental impact. This was followed by an article in the New York Times expressing concerns about the increase in mining in the state. A person involved in the pre-hearing discussion of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee told The Block that these "recent events in New York State" have caused the House Energy and Commerce Committee to warn about cryptocurrency mining.

5. According to the Associated Press, BitNile Holdings, Inc. has signed a purchase agreement with Bitmain for a total of 20,600 Bitcoin mining machines, including 4,600 S19 XP (140 TH/s) and 16,000 S19j Pro (100 TH/s). According to the agreement, starting from March 2022, it is expected to add 2,300 mining machines per month. After all are deployed, BitNile expects to achieve a computing power of approximately 2.24 EH/s.

6. According to lapoliticaonline, during the power outage that affected more than 80,000 users, Cammesa, the Argentine state-owned company that provides electricity, urged users to report whether there is cryptocurrency mining in their area. The government's goal is to stop these companies. Sources from the Deputy Minister of Electricity expect that additional fees will be charged for this and that these mining companies will be required to invest in the local power system.

7. Riot Blockchain and Bitmain Technologies signed a non-fixed price sales agreement, effective December 24, 2021, to purchase 18,000 Antminer S19 Xp mining machines for approximately $202.86 million. Marathon has also disclosed the amount and quantity of recent purchases, including 78,000 Bitmain's Antminer S-19 XP mining machines, valued at $879.06 million, shipped in six batches.

8. On January 4, Canaan announced the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement to carry out joint mining operations with several mining companies in Kazakhstan. As of December 31, 2021, Canaan had a total of 10,300 AvalonMiner mining machines in its mining operations in the country. The company continues to deploy additional computing power in accordance with its mining business expansion plan.

9. Hashrate Index: An inventory of Canadian mining news in 2021. It is expected that Canada's market share will remain above 10.0%. The group of Canadian miners is expanding. Through the integration of energy markets, ASIC mining machine production, mining farms, software and financial services, the Canadian mining market is becoming more vertically integrated.

10. Core Scientific announced that it mined 1,044 bitcoins in December, 2,498 bitcoins in the fourth quarter, and 5,769 bitcoins for the whole year. By the end of 2021, Core Scientific operated about 67,000 mining machines for itself, equivalent to 6.6 EH/s. The company has signed a contract to receive more than 100,000 mining machines in 2022.

11. According to the financial industry, on January 6, Xiangtai Foods (PLIN.US), a US-listed company, announced that its subsidiary SonicHash US signed a purchase agreement with HashCow LLC. SonicHash US purchased 686 cryptocurrency mining machines for a total purchase price of US$5,995,640. China Xiangtai Foods Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Chongqing, China. Through its subsidiaries Chongqing Penglin Food Co., Ltd. and Guang'an Yongpeng Food Co., Ltd., the company mainly processes pork food.

12. AMD will start selling its latest cheap GPU, Radeon RX 6500 XT, on January 19. It will retail for $199. Laura Smith, vice president of AMD Radeon, said that there is no 8GB version of 6500 XT. 6500 XT also uses a 64-bit memory interface. Both decisions make 6500 XT particularly unfavorable for Ethereum mining. (arstechnica)

13. On January 9, superphiz, a community security consultant for the Ethereum beacon chain, said that the Ethereum fork Bellatrix will merge the current chain with the new PoS beacon chain. The fork will not enable withdrawals from the beacon chain, and it is expected that withdrawals of staked ETH will be enabled approximately six months after the merger. After the merger, traditional GPU mining will no longer be conducted on Ethereum. Instead, the network will be protected by proof-of-stake (PoS) validating nodes, who will begin receiving transaction fee rewards at the time of the merger. In addition, superphiz expects that Bellatrix will be implemented in June 2022 and beacon chain staked ETH withdrawals will be opened in December.