China Intensifies Hunt For Cryptocurrency Miners In Hiding (bloomberg.com) 33
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: China's campaign against the cryptocurrency industry is now targeting miners who tried to disguise themselves as data researchers and storage facilities to stay in business, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Inspections intensified this month in several Chinese provinces, targeting illegal mining activities in colleges, research institutions and data centers, said the people who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Concern over the country's power supplies for the upcoming winter season is one reason for the urgency, they said. The new round of scrutiny could further depress the amount of crypto mining occurring in China, which for years had been the dominant player and as recently as April had a 46% share of the global hash rate, a measure of computing power used in mining and processing, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
They care about the environment! (Score:4, Insightful)
They definitely just want to stop global warming. I'm sure this has absolutely nothing to do with their announcement of an official CCP cryptocurrency a few weeks ago.
Re: They care about the environment! (Score:3, Insightful)
Not really, it has to do with the fact their power and water supplies are on the verge of collapse. Having a centrally managed economy, they committed everything in the last 20 years to create jobs and industry in locations where people were but resources were sparse, suppressing the real cost and market pressures not to make some really stupid decisions. People being people took advantage of this and now they have to dial back without admitting fault or halting their economy to a grind.
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Doubt it. China has been spending on roads, airports, and infrastructure for many years. In fact, most of the Chinese GDP goes into plans like Thousand Talents and the Belt and Road initiatives. Of all the countries in the world that can handle a disaster, China is the most prepared, and has by far the most modern, secure, and foolproof infrastructure around, designed by the world's best.
I trust to have power and water anywhere in China over places like California and Texas (where in Texas, even having a
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China doesn't want to be dependent on coal any more than anyone else does, even if they are more willing to accept the pollution than most. It's a strategic disadvantage. And crypto mining is inherently wasteful, and oh yeah money laundering. Authoritarian states are really not expected to enjoy that one.
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RIght. For a start it forces them to do business with Australia, and thanks to Australia deciding to buy a bunch of Nuclear Subs for some reason, they really arent fond of us (Did we really think it was because the primeminister said mean things?
That never made sense to me, but australia gaining a nuclear sub fleet, I highly doubt chinese intelligence where unaware of it. It all adds up).
More to the point though, Chinas air pollution issues are somewhat accute. They've cleaned up beijing somewhat, b
Re: They care about the environment! (Score:2)
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Not really, it has to do with the fact their power and water supplies are on the verge of collapse.
Is there any reason to think this? I haven't heard that.
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Even the left-wing China supporters have been saying this for a while:
https://earth.org/tackling-chi... [earth.org]
https://www.nationalreview.com... [nationalreview.com]
https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/30... [cnn.com]
It's not hard to find, just Google.
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Thanks
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China devolved responsibility for energy to regional governments a while back. It was a bit of a disaster, they ended up building a load of coal plants that then got mothballed before they even started generating because wind power covered the demand.
In response the central government took back some of the control.
The reason they are worried about crypto mining though is that it's an environmental disaster. China gets a lot of criticism for emitting CO2, despite actually doing better than a lot of Western c
Re: They care about the environment! (Score:2)
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AmiMojo is a pro-China shill.
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Not really, it has to do with the fact their power and water supplies are on the verge of collapse.
Kind of hard to have a "collapse" with all the foreign companies leaving. [youtu.be]
Re: They care about the environment! (Score:2)
No, not really.
The cryptocurrency miners are mostly tax dodgers which plan to emigrate and cause malinvestment in energy generation. For a while diverting some funds into China made it a decent deal regardless, but they have become a net liability for China and not just the rest of the world, so time to centrally plan them away.
Why? (Score:1)
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Re: Why? (Score:1)
They don't benefit China's holder of power (ie. Pooh) because they make China weaker.
Corruption can't shield them against a totalitarian leader, Pooh has no need for pay offs.
Just hide it ... (Score:3)
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Well, you'd have to apply for permits, and give the CCP 25% ownership, and they'd be reviewing your books and making sure you're properly supporting their industrial policy by buying equipment locally that is available locally.
Good (Score:5, Insightful)
This insanity has to stop for multiple reasons.
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Where else do you expect them to spend rumspringa?
It's not just AmishGuy2006 around here!
Re:Since forever (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, I do not hate technology. In fact, I am a PhD-level engineer. I dislike _bad_ technology and misuse of technology. Crypto-"currencies" are both. I also dislike any kind of pyramid-schemes, Ponzi-variants and pump&dump scams, which crypto-"currencies" routinely are used for. These pray on the weak and that is just completely unacceptable to any halfway decent person.
Which means your strawman is pretty much a complete fail. Also, the implication of some religious angle farther up also leaves me completely unfazed. As an Atheist, I have had ample opportunity of the mindless followers of one religious delusions calling the mindless followers of another religious delusion "stupid". In fact, I find this demented activity highly entertaining.
That said, there are always plenty of morons that mindlessly love new tech just because it is new tech and not because they have any understanding of how it actually works or what it actually does or what its implications are.
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You seem to vastly overestimate my power. What I wrote is commonly known as a "comment", not as a "decision".
Bitcoin mining does not harm the environment? (Score:1)