Exclusive: Ganzi symposium affirms the value of the mine and the "mining demonstration zone" is about to emerge

The symposium on the cleanup of Bitcoin mines in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which was originally scheduled to be held on the 25th, has been postponed to the 27th.

Compared with the previous panic, the content of this meeting is more positive. According to Wu Blockchain, the official recognized the use of surplus electricity by Bitcoin mines, the cooperation between power generation and electricity users, and called on mining companies to actively participate in the "consumption demonstration zone" to jointly digest surplus electricity.

However, the meeting also emphasized that it is not allowed to use the banner of mining to conduct illegal activities such as virtual currency ICO and financing, and required companies to abide by laws and regulations and maintain market order.

"70% of the world's mining farms are in China, 70% of China's mining farms are in Sichuan, and Sichuan is mainly distributed around the Dadu River." Ganzi is the core basin of the Dadu River. Among them, Ganzi Kangding was once called the "China Bitcoin Mining Capital" by foreign media.

On the 24th, the "Notice of the People's Office of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Convening a Symposium on the Cleanup of Bitcoin Mines in the Prefecture" attracted attention. The document shows that with the approval of the prefecture government leaders, the People's Government Office of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture decided to hold a symposium on the cleanup of Bitcoin mines in the prefecture on the morning of December 25.

On the 24th, the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture People's Government Office issued the Ganzi Prefecture actively prepares for the peak winter power supply 》, indicating that power restrictions would be implemented. The Ganzi Prefecture Work Plan for Cleaning Up and Rectifying Bitcoin Mines was issued to regulate the direct power supply behavior of power companies and urge power generation companies to give priority to ensuring unified dispatching indicators and social power supply during the dry season.

The Chinese government has not publicly opposed virtual currency mining, but has also issued multiple documents internally. On January 2, 2018, the Internet Finance Risk Special Rectification Office Leading Group (hereinafter referred to as the Internet Finance Rectification Office) issued an internal document requiring all localities to guide enterprises within their jurisdiction to orderly withdraw from the "mining" business and regularly report on the progress of their work.

This year, the draft of the National Development and Reform Commission's industrial restructuring guidance catalogue for soliciting opinions listed virtual currency mining as an industry to be eliminated. The main text published on November 6 deleted this item, indicating that after lobbying from all walks of life, the regulators at the economic and livelihood level have left room for mining. However, the central bank's financial system has since begun to crack down on virtual currency transactions again, and all walks of life are worried that the mining industry will be implicated.

From November 11 to November 25, 2019, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Joint Inspection Team went to some leagues and cities to conduct a joint inspection on the cleanup and rectification of virtual currency "mining" enterprises, causing panic in the industry. However, Wu said that the inspection focused on investigating "electricity fee discounts" and "tax evasion" rather than clearing out the mines.

After the National Development and Reform Commission excluded mining from the eliminated industries, the status of the mining industry is still in an uncertain state. The right way forward is to move towards transparency and compliance. The concept of "demonstration zone" proposed at the Ganzi symposium is worth paying attention to. If the "demonstration zone" can form a "regulatory sandbox" similar to Singapore's for virtual currencies, it will be a major boon to the mining industry.

The consumption demonstration zone is a new policy proposed by Sichuan Province this year. According to Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, August 1, the General Office of the Sichuan Provincial Government recently issued the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of Hydropower Consumption Industry Demonstration Zones in Sichuan Province", which determined that six cities and prefectures, including Ganzi, Panzhihua, Ya'an, Leshan, Liangshan, and Aba, would carry out pilot projects for hydropower consumption industry demonstration zones. According to the plan, the user electricity price is divided into two types: the annual comprehensive electricity price and the abandoned hydropower electricity price. The electricity price of abandoned hydropower is separately implemented by the electricity-using enterprises during the flood season. The transaction price of abandoned hydropower is determined by the electricity-using enterprises and the power generation enterprises in accordance with relevant policies or formed by participating in transactions. The implementation plan will take effect from August 1 and will be valid until December 31, 2022.

The Ganzi Prefecture Hydropower Consumption Industry Demonstration Park is located in Kawu Village, Xinduqiao Town, Kangding City, with a current planned area of ​​3,000 mu. The park is 18 kilometers away from the Waze Township Government, 10.5 kilometers away from the G318 line, 8.4 kilometers away from Kangding Airport, and close to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway under construction. The park will be built in accordance with the international data center T3 standard, and corresponding supporting facilities will be reserved for future upgrades to a T4 data center. The park plans to have 110,000 big data racks with a load of 1.3 million kilowatts.

On November 29, State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, the Economic Cooperation Bureau, and the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Government in Chengdu to actively build the Ganzi Prefecture Hydropower Consumption Industry Demonstration Zone and promote the consumption of surplus hydropower.

At the 2017 Economic Situation and Power Development Analysis and Forecast Conference, the China Electricity Council said that in 2016, the amount of electricity abandoned by "abandoning hydropower, wind power and solar power" exceeded 110 billion kWh, while the Three Gorges Power Station generated only 17 billion kWh that year. In 2016, abnormal water abandonment in the southwest region hit a new high, with a loss of more than 70 billion kWh of electricity. The amount of abandoned hydropower in Sichuan Province further increased to about 14.2 billion kWh, an increase of about 39% year-on-year, a record high in the past five years.

Most of the abandoned electricity is located in the western region, where the economy is underdeveloped and there are few electricity-using companies. Bitcoin mining machines only need to be connected to the Internet to use electricity for mining, generate income, and benefit the economy and people's livelihood. It is not an exaggeration to say that "only mining machines can solve the problem of abandoned electricity."

The following is the symposium notice