Is Musk's "going back on his word" just because he covets the computing power industry? China's share of clean energy is not low!

On the 25th, Musk tweeted that he had talked with North American Bitcoin miners, who promised to release the current and planned use of renewable energy and encourage the industry to follow up on the implementation. He hinted that this is the potential hope for Bitcoin.

Later, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor retweeted the tweet, saying that Musk met with a group of mining companies in North America, and the miners agreed to establish a Bitcoin Mining Council to increase energy consumption transparency and accelerate sustainable activities worldwide.
These mining companies include Argo Blockchain, Blockcap, Core Scientific, Galaxy Digital, Hive Blockchain, Hut 8 Mining, Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Blockchain.
So, a war has begun among North American mining companies trying to seize leadership in the global Bitcoin computing power industry?

Chinese Entrepreneurs: The Computing Industry May Shift from China to the United States

Musk "goes back on his word", and Xiong Yue, director of the Bixin Research Institute, said: "What we should pay attention to is not the vague issues such as how much computing power China accounts for and who has the right to keep accounts, which are all things about the results. What I am concerned about is that Musk has played a bad role in the rules, and it is very bad. Bitcoin will certainly continue to be stable, but many people in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Sichuan and other places will lose their jobs because of his gossip."
Bitcoin William said: "Musk is not ignorant. When he criticized Bitcoin mining for its high energy consumption and concentrated computing power, his only target was Chinese miners. He wanted to get the mining machines and computing power to himself and the United States. This wave of computing power migration should be faster than expected."
Cai Hengjin, doctoral supervisor at Wuhan University, initiator and chief scientist of EveriToken public chain, said: "Musk has set up a Bitcoin mining committee. Where are the Chinese mining companies with the largest computing power? After handing over the pricing power, are we just handing over the mining rights?"
Kong Jianping, former co-chairman of Canaan Inc., said: “Bitcoin pricing power is already a competition between decentralized exchanges and U.S. exchanges. Mainland China has completely lost its pricing power. Next, North American mining companies with Musk as a node are striving for the mining and accounting rights in the Bitcoin world. If mainland China does not have a better policy environment, the last good card in the blockchain world will be lost, which is a pity.”
It is not difficult to imagine that after Musk's series of fancy tweets, the entire Bitcoin computing power market is undergoing a major change. But to some extent, with Musk's change of tone, there is no doubt that it is good for the global Bitcoin and Bitcoin computing power industry.

Clean energy, including hydropower, wind power and solar energy, has a high share in China

The discussion about the transition of Bitcoin mining from fossil energy to clean energy is not "out of thin air".
In fact, more than 120 countries and two-thirds of the world's economies have joined the "carbon neutrality" transition. Therefore, this is not just environmental opinion. The shift of Bitcoin mining from fossil energy to clean energy is almost irreversible. Governments around the world are promoting "carbon neutrality" policies, especially in 2021.
In China, on February 25, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region announced a comprehensive cleanup and shutdown of virtual currency mining, which was also a harbinger of the implementation of the carbon neutrality policy in China.
Clean energy is generally considered as renewable energy (nuclear energy is also classified as clean energy), and the International Energy Agency classifies hydropower, solar energy, wind energy, biofuels and waste as major renewable resources. According to the report data provided by the International Energy Agency in 2016, the electricity provided by the above-mentioned renewable energy sources is about 56 times the electricity consumption of the Bitcoin network.
Previously, hydropower was the clean energy with the largest reserves, mainly distributed in regions rich in water resources such as China, South America and North America.
According to statistics provided by Biyin, during the flood season, Sichuan accounts for 50% of the country's mining electricity consumption, and Yunnan accounts for 25%. This means that during the flood season, about 75% of mining electricity is hydropower clean energy. The proportion is lower during the dry season, with Xinjiang accounting for 50% of the country's mining electricity consumption and Inner Mongolia accounting for about 30% (previous data), which means that during the dry season, hydropower clean energy accounts for 20%.
Overall, about 65% of China's mining energy comes from clean energy, and this proportion will continue to increase.
In addition to hydropower, solar and wind power account for the majority, but these two energy sources have some problems, such as high costs. However, recently, payment giant Square and asset management company Ark Invest mentioned in a joint research report that the production costs of solar and wind energy have dropped significantly in the past decade, with solar energy falling by 90% and wind energy falling by 71%. In addition, with the development of battery technology, the intermittent shortage of wind power and solar energy in supply may be compensated.
Therefore, it is entirely possible for Bitcoin mining to use clean energy, which will even promote the adoption of clean energy around the world.
Moreover, clean energy has become a cost-effective choice in the global energy arbitrage of Bitcoin mining. Because the cost of these energy sources is decreasing, the following is the price per kilowatt of renewable energy. It can be seen that clean energy is even lower than the price of fossil energy.

Data source: Square

From the policy point of view, more than a dozen provinces in China have published the 14th Five-Year Energy Plan, which clearly points out that the scale of photovoltaic power will be increased. Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places will be able to increase their installed capacity by more than half by 2025. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Energy Research Institute and other institutions predict that by 2050, nearly 40% of China's electricity consumption will be photovoltaic. Therefore, China's supply of these two clean energy sources in the future will not be low.
Therefore, there is reason to believe that Bitcoin mining can achieve the transformation from fossil energy to clean energy in China.
Overseas, this process is accelerating. For example, in April 2021, a Bitcoin mining company called Gryphon Digital Mining announced that its Bitcoin mining business would use 100% clean energy. At that time, there were at least three global companies claiming to use clean energy to mine Bitcoin, including listed companies such as ArgoBlockchain (UK) and Neptune Digital Assets (Canada).