Sichuan Bitcoin mining machines may be shut down across the board, miners say to mining machines: Bye, See you

Midnight on the 19th may be a historic moment for China's Bitcoin mining industry.

It is reported that due to policy reasons, Sichuan, the most important Bitcoin mining machine gathering place in China and even the world, will usher in a large-scale shutdown of mining machines. It is estimated that the load of the shutdown is about 8 million kilowatts. Following Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, Sichuan, which mainly relies on clean energy and hydropower, has not become the last bastion of Bitcoin mining in China.

Affected by this, the average computing power of the entire Bitcoin network has dropped to 102E, about 43% lower than the high point of 181E. It is likely to fall below 100E in the near future.

Specifically, as of 7 a.m. on the 20th, OKLink data showed that F2Pool's computing power fell by 5.38%, AntPool fell by 40%, Poolin fell by 8.94%, BTC.com fell by 16.78%, and Huobi mining pool fell by 37.24%.

But the North American mining pool Foundry USA rose by 90%. The mining pool is affiliated with Digital Currency Group (DCG).

This may mean that the era of Bitcoin mining in China has come to an end, and Bitcoin mining in North America and other overseas countries has begun to rise. Although Chinese Bitcoin miners have dominated the global Bitcoin mining market for nearly a decade.

Miners say to mining machines: Bye, See you

On the evening of the 19th, a short video began to circulate in WeChat Moments, showing miners cutting off the power supply of Bitcoin mining machines, and rows of flickering green lights going out one by one. Many people at the scene said: Bye, See you.

The video was forwarded crazily, and practitioners expressed their feelings one after another: an era has passed and we miss it.

Short video: https://video.weibo.com/show?fid=1034:4649937242357885‌

The following content is excerpted from social media.

Practitioner A:

"An era of miners has ended, bye bye! Although the gentle breeze cannot blow me, the bright moon will still shine on me. Ice cannot stop the flow of water, and dead trees will also bloom again in spring."

Practitioner B:

"Tonight, the water of Dadu River is surging and surging. Along the river, the mining machines of the hydropower stations will be shut down one by one. The blue light disappears in the night sky. The world's largest Bitcoin computing power base - Sichuan is offline. In May 2016, I went to Sichuan to see the mines at that time and wrote an article "The Magical Reality of Bitcoin Mining". The last sentence reads: 'Perhaps, on one side of the horizon, a beam of dawn is cast, climb up the mast, and look towards the direction of the sea of ​​stars. We are now standing at the dock of the journey of Bitcoin civilization.'

After tonight, the docks are closed and everything is quiet. Many years later, I wonder if anyone will remember that so many Bitcoin nodes once existed brilliantly on this land. Many years later, I wonder if anyone will remember that this ancient river basin is running the most cutting-edge technology computing power.

It doesn't matter anymore, everything is as it is. For the mine owners, it is a bit tragic; but for the investors, it is even a bit of relief. Raise your glasses, mine owners, drink a glass of bitter wine and recall the past glorious years. "

Practitioner C:

"Around this time last year, when China was just beginning to lift the lockdown, the first conference in the industry was the Sichuan Chengdu Mining Conference during the flood season. Today, times have changed, and the mining boom of that time has been integrated into the brilliant stars of tonight. Later industry practitioners should also remember the former glory of this place~."

Practitioner D:

"Sichuan's 8 million loads will be shut down collectively at 0:00 tonight. The most tragic and spectacular scene for miners in the history of blockchain is about to happen. How far-reaching the impact will be will only be known in the future."

Practitioner E:

"Today, we can officially declare the end of an era."

Practitioner F:

"Although I am too sad to say goodbye, I still believe there is a bright future ahead."

Bitcoin mining in China: Always the world's number one

China is the global center of the Bitcoin mining industry.

In early 2013, Pumpkin Zhang was the first to develop an ASIC mining machine, named "Avalon", which may be the beginning of the scale of Bitcoin mining in China and the world. As a result, the era of personal GPU mining is gone forever. Pumpkin Zhang is Zhang Nangeng, who later founded Canaan Creative.

At the end of the year, the first generation of Antminers began to ship, and Bitmain entered the historical stage. In 2014, the big bear market came, and Bitmain and Canaan Creative successfully survived. The former accounted for more than 80% of the global market in 2017-2018.

Since 2019-2020, China has become the undisputed leader in the Bitcoin mining machine industry. Mining machine companies such as Bitmain, Canaan Creative, MicroBit, Innosilicon, and Ebang International have shined and led the world. In 2019, Canaan Creative was listed on the Nasdaq, becoming the first stock in the mining machine industry. The following year, Ebang International also landed on the US stock market.

Today, China's mining machine industry has gone overseas and built supply chains overseas, or sold most of its products overseas, making overseas a major consumption destination for mining machines.

In May 2013, the Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool was opened, which may be the beginning of China's mining pool industry. After that, Chinese mining pools including AntPool, BTC.com, Poolin, ViaBTC and others occupied the vast majority of Bitcoin computing power, and overseas mining pools were squeezed out of the top ten in the world without exception.

Today, the Bitcoin computing power of Chinese mining pools plummeted, Foundry USA and SlushPool entered the top ten, and the overseas computing power market finally ushered in spring after being hit for several years.

After Bitcoin entered the ASIC era, Chinese Bitcoin miners started to specialize, and they explored from cities to remote mountainous areas. Several major Bitcoin mining sites were born in China.

Since the proof-of-work mining of cryptocurrency is actually carried out through the consumption of "energy", mining farms are usually concentrated in areas with abundant electricity resources and low electricity prices to reduce costs and ensure a higher input-output ratio. Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, which are rich in thermal power resources, and Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and other places rich in hydropower, have become the main battlefields for miners to develop. They traveled through mountains and rivers to build mining farms and infrastructure in these places. In those remote areas, it may take half a day to drive to them, but they are running the world's most advanced computing chips.

Ultimately, the miners created China's Bitcoin mining industry. They have controlled the vast majority of Bitcoin computing power over the past few years and are the real "voice holders" of Bitcoin.

Today, China's mines are closing one after another, and miners are beginning to seek to go overseas or leave the industry completely.

A list of targeted policies implemented in various parts of China regarding Bitcoin mining

On May 21, the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council mentioned that it would resolutely prevent and control financial risks. It would adhere to the bottom line thinking, strengthen all-round scanning and early warning of financial risks, promote the reform and risk reduction of small and medium-sized financial institutions, focus on reducing credit risks, strengthen the supervision of financial activities of platform enterprises, and crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading.

On May 25, the Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission issued the "Eight Measures on Resolutely Cracking Down on and Punishing Virtual Currency "Mining" Behavior (Draft for Comments)". Mines in Inner Mongolia began to shut down.

On June 9, the Qinghai Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology also issued a notice on the comprehensive closure of virtual currency "mining" projects. Mining farms in Qinghai began to be shut down.

On June 9, the Development and Reform Commission of Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang issued a "Notice on Immediately Suspending and Rectifying Enterprises Engaging in Virtual Currency Mining," and mines in Xinjiang began to be closed.

On May 27, in order to fully understand the relevant situation of virtual currency "mining" in Sichuan, the Sichuan Supervision Office of the National Energy Administration issued a notice to hold a small-scale seminar on June 2. On June 18, the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Sichuan Provincial Energy Bureau issued the "Notice on Cleaning Up and Shutting Down Virtual Currency "Mining" Projects", requiring the State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company to complete the screening, cleaning up and shutting down of 26 suspected virtual currency "mining" projects that have been investigated and reported to the state by June 20. The Sichuan mine began to shut down.