Power in Xinjiang drops sharply, Bitcoin mining pool hashrate plummets across the board, possibly causing regional players to leave

On the afternoon of April 16, 2021, BTC.com data showed that the 24-hour Bitcoin mining pool computing power generally plummeted. As of the time of writing, F2Pool fell 15.59%, AntPool fell 20.71%, BTC.com fell 20.95%, and CoinIn fell 36.81%, and the decline has a tendency to expand. It is understood that the large-scale Bitcoin mining pools plummeted across the board, and the reason is related to the comprehensive power outage safety inspection in Xinjiang.
Under normal circumstances, the average computing power of the entire network in the past day is 163.66EH/s. According to industry professionals, because BTC browsers have not responded promptly to the current plunge in mining pool computing power, the current average computing power of the entire network is about 130EH/s.

Current status of large-scale safety accidents in coal mines
At about 18:10 on April 10, a sudden water seepage accident occurred during the technical transformation of Fengyuan Coal Mine in Queergou Town, Hutubi County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, resulting in power outages and communication interruptions underground. According to CCTV News, there were 29 people on duty underground when the accident occurred, 8 of whom have been safely lifted to the surface, and 21 are trapped. Meng Xianmin, director of the Health Commission of Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, introduced that the 8 people who were safely lifted to the surface were not injured and were in good physical condition. At present, the positions of the 21 trapped people have been basically determined, and the 21 people are distributed in 3 locations. Among them, 12 people are located on one of the operating platforms, and another 8 people are on the same operating platform. Another person entered the escape passage, but water entered the escape passage, and no more detailed information is available. The operating platform where the 12 people are located is 1,200 meters from the ground, and the underground terrain is complex, making rescue difficult. Underground communications and electricity are still interrupted, and rescue work is still in full swing.
According to CCTV News, after the accident, the Party Committee and the government of the autonomous region attached great importance to it. Chen Quanguo, Secretary of the Party Committee of the autonomous region, and Shohrat Zakir, Chairman of the autonomous region, quickly made arrangements and requested to immediately activate the emergency plan, put saving lives first, race against time to rescue the trapped people, minimize casualties, and rush to the scene as soon as possible to direct the rescue work. Chen Quanguo and Shohrat Zakir stressed that at all costs, every effort should be made to open up the rescue channel and rescue the trapped people; a rescue command center should be established to coordinate and command in a unified manner, scientific rescue should be adhered to, and secondary accidents should be strictly prevented; the cause of the accident should be quickly identified, and lessons should be learned to conduct in-depth safety hazard inspections and rectifications for coal mines and non-coal mines in the region.

At present, the Ministry of Emergency Management has sent a working group and experts to the scene to guide the rescue. At the same time, the National Mine Xinjiang Team, the National Mine Emergency Rescue Shenhua Xinjiang Team and the local fire rescue team were dispatched to the scene to carry out rescue work with all their strength. Various rescue and disposal work is being carried out in an intense and orderly manner.
The power outage due to safety inspection has had a significant impact on mining in Xinjiang. According to the requirements of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Government, it is now necessary to quickly find out the cause of the accident, learn from it, and conduct in-depth inspections and rectification of safety hazards in all coal mines and non-coal mines in the region.
According to an announcement released by a local enterprise: According to a notice from the Zhundong Management Committee of the Autonomous Region Government, due to a major safety accident at the Hubi Coal Mine, all big data in the Zhundong area are now out of power to cooperate with the investigation of safety hazards. The power outage time is 12:00 on April 16, 2021, and the restoration time will be notified separately.

According to the announcement of cloud computing mining company BitFuFu, at the request of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Xinjiang Zhundong Mine under the [Armorer] of BitFuFu's cooperation was shut down for rectification at 8:00 on April 16, and BitFuFu is gradually switching computing power to other mines. For the computing power that was cut off due to the rectification, BitFuFu will postpone the mining time for the affected packages at a ratio of 1:1, that is, if the power is cut off for 1 hour, the mining time will be postponed for 1 hour. The postponement compensation will be automatically added to your account after the power is restored, and no electricity fee will be paid for the postponed part.
Industry insiders said that the plunge in computing power will theoretically lead to a significant increase in revenue for mining farms and mining machine holders that are not affected. Because the computing power of the mining pool is like a big cake, with fewer people sharing the cake, the single T revenue of the mining machine will naturally increase. According to BTC.com data, as of the time of posting, block revenue has been on an upward trend, reaching a maximum of 8.47158432 BTC. However, the impact of enterprises that have deployed mining farms in Xinjiang stopping mining is still very large. It is understood that many retail mining machine holders currently plan to sell the mining machines in Xinjiang mining farms.

Industry insiders explained to a researcher at the China Times Financial Research Institute that most mining in Xinjiang is still done with thermal power, and the current computing power plunge is not caused by a government ban or "carbon neutrality" similar to that in Inner Mongolia. It can be seen that there are still many mining pool companies with mining farms deployed in Xinjiang. However, the computing power plunge will not have a big impact on the price of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. There should be a slight decline, but the overall impact is not significant, because this wave of bull market is mainly driven by consensus-driven price increases after large institutions enter the market. As of posting, the price of Bitcoin is $61,718, down 1.58%.
According to a 2020 report by digital asset management company CoinShares, Chinese Bitcoin miners control two-thirds of the global computing power, or approximately 66%, with Sichuan alone accounting for 54%; the report mentioned that the increase in China's share may be due to the deployment of more and more advanced mining equipment and the improvement in the profitability of miners.
Bitcoin computing power mainly comes from some areas with cheap electricity. Sichuan, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia and other regions in my country have become the main sources of Bitcoin computing power. Government policies and emergencies in Sichuan, Xinjiang, Guizhou and other places will greatly affect the development of global mining and computing power. For example, on September 24, 2019, the Sichuan Provincial People's Government issued a notice to thoroughly manage network chaos and network security loopholes. In this governance activity, Internet information service units and blockchain operating companies became the focus of law enforcement inspections. After the policy was released, the hash rate of the Bitcoin network dropped from 98 million TH/S to 57.7 million TH/S, a drop of 40%.