Illegal Bitcoin (BTC) mining activities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China will be shut down next September by order of the Economic and Information Commission (EIC).
According to information published last Saturday by a local media outlet, the EIC wrote a notice requesting local companies to suspend illegal crypto mining activities. The leaked announcement mentions that these companies will have until August 30th to submit reports on the process of cessation of their operations.
Illegal Bitcoin (BTC) mining activities are defined in the publication as an operation that is not registered with the Chinese government, and that requires a high consumption of unauthorized electricity, in the absence of formal contracts with utilities.
China and illegal Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations
This requirement of the EIC is unprecedented in measures taken earlier this year. In January 2018, the miners of the area were instructed to report on the 5th of each month for instructions on their orderly exit from the business. That is a measure that seemed to respond to the guidance of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), which, since January 2nd, has instructed local governments to take action to regulate electricity consumption, land use, taxes and environmental protection, in the face of the demand for resources by companies engaged in crypto mining.
In that sense, some reports indicate that many of the Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies located in the region are leaving for Canada and the United States in search of better conditions to dedicate themselves to this activity, even if they have to start from scratch once again.
These kinds of decisions have been generating concern within the cryptocurrencies market, as they are seen as part of a plan by the Chinese government to eradicate mining from the Asian country. That is due to the implications that such decisions could have on the niche, as it is a country that concentrates more than 50% of the large Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools, according to estimates made at the end of 2017, and a significant percentage of the processing power of this network.
