New York Times Technology Image: Visiting China's Bitcoin Mine in a Mind-Blowing Wild Place

Peter Ng, the owner of the computer room, said the bitcoin mining machines in his room use about 38 megawatts of electricity - enough electricity to run a small Chinese city.

Figure 1: In front of a computer room equipped with Bitcoin mining machines in Guizhou. China has become the largest market for Bitcoin, stimulating a large amount of capital to flow into Bitcoin mining centers like this one.



Figure 2: Bitcoin mining computers are stacked on shelves at this bitcoin mine in Guizhou. These computers unlock new bitcoins by solving computational problems and "recording" them in the bitcoin network. They are used to mine bitcoin and ether, a virtual currency that competes with bitcoin.

Figure 3: A dormitory at a bitcoin mining farm in Guizhou. A computer displays the exchange rate of bitcoin to the U.S. dollar. Recently, the output of the four largest bitcoin mining operations in China accounted for about 70% of the transactions in the bitcoin network.

Figure 4: Server and Ethernet cables are scattered on the ground at a bitcoin mine in Guizhou. The machines that mine bitcoins need to maintain close contact with other computers in the global virtual currency network.

Figure 4: Computer fan packaging boxes are scattered all over the floor in a bitcoin mine in Guizhou. The high-intensity computer operations during bitcoin mining require fans to dissipate heat from the machines.

Figure 5: The wiring for the circuit breaker that powers the Bitcoin mining farm runs through the window. Peter Ng, the owner of the computer room, said the Bitcoin mining machines in his room use about 38 megawatts - enough electricity to run a small Chinese city.

Figure 6: Peter Ng has 28 such Bitcoin mining farms, each of which is filled with densely packed servers, tangled cables and fans to cool the machines.

Figure 8: Dormitory of a Bitcoin mining farm. Television screens are used to monitor the activities at the mining center.

Figure 9: Workers install processors on motherboards to assemble bitcoin mining machines, which will later fill empty shelves.

Judging from the name, the boss is from Hong Kong.