Wu said weekly mining information: NDRC press conference detailed response to mining 1115-1121

Wu said the author   |   Colin Wu

Editor of this issue   |   Colin Wu

1.

The National Development and Reform Commission responded to the content of virtual currency mining: studying the imposition of punitive electricity prices

On November 16, the National Development and Reform Commission pointed out in response to reporters' questions at the press conference: First of all, it needs to be made clear that virtual currency is a specific virtual commodity that is not issued by the monetary authorities, is not legal and compulsory, is not a real currency, and should not and cannot be circulated and used as currency in the market. In September this year, the People's Bank of China, together with relevant departments, issued the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation", clarifying that virtual currency does not have the same legal status as legal currency, its related business activities are illegal financial activities, and there are legal risks in participating in virtual currency investment and trading activities. Since virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities, the virtual currency "mining" behavior involved in your question is extremely harmful. Virtual currency "mining" consumes a lot of energy and emits a lot of carbon, and does not have a positive driving effect on industrial development and scientific and technological progress. In addition, the risks derived from the production and trading of virtual currency are becoming more and more prominent. Its blind and disorderly development has a serious adverse impact on promoting high-quality economic and social development and energy conservation and emission reduction. Rectifying virtual currency "mining" activities is of great significance to promoting the optimization of my country's industrial structure, promoting energy conservation and emission reduction, and achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals as scheduled. In order to resolutely implement the relevant deployment requirements for the rectification of virtual currency "mining", the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant departments, jointly issued the "Notice on the Rectification of Virtual Currency "Mining" Activities", which clearly added virtual currency "mining" activities to the "elimination category" catalog of the "Guidelines for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2019 Edition)", and required effective measures to be taken to comprehensively rectify virtual currency "mining" activities. On November 10, the National Development and Reform Commission organized a special video conference on virtual currency "mining" governance, reported on the monitoring and rectification of virtual currency "mining", deployed the next stage of work, and required all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to effectively assume local responsibilities, establish systems, carry out monitoring, clean up and rectify virtual currency "mining" activities in their regions, and strictly investigate and punish "mining" activities involving computer rooms of state-owned units. In the next step, we will focus on comprehensive rectification of industrial centralized "mining", "mining" involving state-owned units and Bitcoin "mining". For units that implement residential electricity prices, if they are found to be involved in virtual currency "mining" activities, we will study imposing punitive electricity prices on them, creating a high-pressure situation to continuously rectify virtual currency "mining" activities.

2.

Guiyang sets up a reporting hotline for virtual currency "mining"

According to the official website of Guiyang Municipal Development and Reform Commission: On September 3, 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission jointly with 11 national ministries and commissions issued the "Notice on the Rectification of Virtual Currency "Mining" Activities" (Fagaiyunxing [2021] No. 1283), and then the National and Provincial Development and Reform Commissions successively held video conferences to further arrange and deploy the rectification of virtual currency "mining". In order to implement the spirit of relevant national documents and meetings, and to truly regard the rectification of virtual currency "mining" activities as an important task to promote high-quality economic and social development, our city will maintain a high-pressure situation for the rectification of virtual currency "mining", open a rectification reporting channel, and welcome people from all walks of life to supervise and report.

Scope of reporting: Virtual currency "mining" refers to the process of producing virtual currency through calculations using dedicated "mining machines", and the scope is as follows: (1) Virtual currency "mining" companies that disguise themselves as data centers to enjoy preferential policies in terms of taxation, land, and electricity prices; (2) Other companies and Internet cafes that engage in "mining" in various hidden forms; (3) Companies and individuals that provide site rental and other services to companies engaged in virtual currency "mining"; (4) Companies that obtain electricity supply through illegal means and engage in virtual currency "mining" activities.

3.

The Sichuan Provincial Government held a video conference to regulate virtual currency "mining" and trading activities across the province

According to the official website of the Sichuan Provincial Government, on the morning of November 17, the provincial government held a video conference to rectify virtual currency "mining" and trading activities across the province, reporting on the rectification of virtual currency "mining" and crackdown on virtual currency trading activities in the province, and making arrangements for the next stage of work.

The meeting stressed that relevant departments and cities (prefectures) must resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and the work requirements of the provincial party committee and provincial government, deeply understand the current severe situation of the rectification of virtual currency "mining" and trading activities, continuously consolidate the results of the rectification, effectively form a joint force for rectification, continue to increase the intensity of punishment, and resolutely win the battle of "rectifying virtual currency 'mining' and trading activities."

The meeting was attended by officials from the Provincial Cyberspace Affairs Office, the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Chengdu Branch of the People's Bank of China and other departments (units), as well as the State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company, the Provincial Telecommunications Company and other enterprises. Officials in charge of the governments of various cities (prefectures) and officials from relevant departments (units) attended the meeting via video at the branch venues.

4.

According to Trent, a staff member of the Ethereum Foundation, on Twitter, Ethereum miners, I personally estimate that POW will be completed within 3 to 6 months. If you regard mining as an investment, please be prepared. Recently, the computing power of the entire Ethereum network has continued to hit new highs.

5.

Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee (GKNB) recently busted a large illegal mining farm in the town of Druzhba in the Issyk-Ata region and confiscated 2,500 illegal mining machines. In May, law enforcement officers seized 2,000 mining equipment at multiple locations in the capital region.

6.

Nvidia said on Wednesday that sales of CMPs designed for ethereum mining fell 60% from the previous quarter to $105 million in the most recent quarter, and it expects sales of the product line to fall to "very negligible" in the fourth quarter.

7.

The Development and Reform Commission of Haidian District, Beijing, recently issued a notice on the "Implementation Plan for Further Promoting Energy Conservation in Haidian District". The "Implementation Plan" requires strengthening energy conservation supervision and law enforcement, and in accordance with the requirements of relevant national and Beijing departments, doing a good job in investigating virtual currency "mining" activities and resolutely eliminating illegal financial activities.

8.

Laos releases new mining regulations: one-time tax of US$1 million per 10 MW

The Laotian Times reported on November 15 that the Laotian government has issued new regulations to manage cryptocurrency mining operations and trading platforms. The translation of the Laotian public account is as follows:

1. The company that mines or operates a cryptocurrency trading platform must be a wholly Laotian-owned enterprise with a stable financial situation and must have sufficient funds to operate the cryptocurrency trading business.

2. Companies applying to mine or act as cryptocurrency trading platforms must deposit a $5 million security deposit with a Lao bank. 3. Cryptocurrency mining operations must use no less than 10 megawatts of electricity, meet the two conditions of a 6-year renewable contract, and use 115kV or 230kV electricity (depending on the power company's power supply capacity).

4. To encourage cryptocurrency mining, the government will exempt the Lao Electricity Company from transmission fees and import taxes.

5. Cryptocurrency mining farm operators will pay a one-time tax based on electricity used ($1 million for every 10 megawatts).

6. A one-time cryptocurrency trading license fee of US$1 million will be charged to cryptocurrency trading platforms, and cryptocurrency trading companies will pay taxes at a rate of 15%.

9.

Bjørn Arild Gram, the Norwegian Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, said that although crypto mining and its underlying technology may bring some possible benefits in the long run, it is difficult to justify the widespread use of renewable energy for mining today. We will seek solutions proposed by Swedish regulators, and our goal is common European regulations in this area. Sweden has previously called for a ban on POW mining at the EU level.

10.

Wu said that under the backdrop of China's comprehensive crackdown on the mining industry and the transfer of miners to the United States, Foundry, a mining pool owned by DCG in the United States, has become the second largest Bitcoin mining pool, currently second only to Ant Pool owned by Bitmain.

11.

On November 17, Blockstream CSO Samson Mow personally led a team to El Salvador to establish a communication connection between the geothermal energy plant and the Blockstream satellite. At the end of September 2021, El Salvador turned the conceptual idea of ​​volcanic energy mining into reality. They mined Bitcoin using geothermal energy from volcanoes as a source of electricity. Now the plant can receive messages from the Bitcoin main chain from space without the Internet. Ensure that the mining facility can update Bitcoin block data in real time under any circumstances.

12.

Canadian bitcoin miner Bitfarms (BITF) said in a statement on Monday that it has doubled its mining capacity to more than 2 EH/s in the past eight months, giving it a larger share of the network hash rate. Bitfarms founder and CEO Emiliano Grodzki said in the statement that as it continues to execute its expansion plan, it expects to continue to outpace the growth of the bitcoin network to drive higher bitcoin production in 2022. Bitfarms has received and installed 1,500 S19j Pro miners in November, and plans to receive and install 2,701 Bitmain S19j Pro miners and 400 MicroBT M30S miners in the remainder of November. Bitfarms has also purchased 48,000 MicroBT miners, scheduled for delivery in 2022.

13.

Marathon, a US-listed company, intends to raise $500 million by issuing senior convertible notes to purchase Bitcoin or Bitcoin mining machines. A month ago, Marathon said it had obtained a $100 million revolving credit line from Silvergate Bank, secured by BTC and US dollars.

Marathon is currently the largest BTC holder among North American Bitcoin mining companies. It said that as of the end of October, it held about 7,453 BTC ($490 million), including 4,812 BTC ($317 million) purchased from the market. The remaining amount all came from its mining operations.

According to CoinDesk, executives of Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), the largest publicly traded mining company in North America, received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate whether federal securities laws were violated and required them to produce documents and communications related to its Harding data center facility in Montana. As a result, MARA's stock price plummeted 20%.

14.

Canadian Bitcoin miner Bitfarms said its computing power has reached 2EH/s. Bitfarms has received and installed 1,500 S19j Pro miners in November, and plans to receive and install 2,701 Bitmain S19j Pro miners and 400 Shenma M30S miners in the rest of November. Bitfarms also purchased 48,000 Shenma miners, which are scheduled to be delivered in 2022. (This is repeated, please ignore)