Chinese Bitcoin (BTC) miners are moving their operations to other countries since China stepped up its crackdown on the industry. Among them is the ASIC equipment manufacturer Canaan, which has made the decision to diversify, and therefore now mines the cryptocurrency in Kazakhstan, where it moved part of its operations.
Canaan announced in a statement that a fleet of its equipment is already operating in Kazakhstan , which has abundant energy sources. In fact, in 2018 the Central Asian country was ranked as the ninth largest producer of coal in the world. The nation is also a major producer of other fossil fuels such as natural gas.
The country to the north of China is attracting miners who have been forced to emigrate. They find Kazakhstan attractive because it produces more than double its energy demand, which allows it to offer cheap electricity to mining farms that are looking for a place to settle.
Kazakhstan not only hosts a new Canaan data center, but the company BIT Mining, owner of the important mining pool BTC.com, announced that it has already mobilized part of its equipment to the country transcontinental , as reported by CriptoNoticias.
Today, when Chinese mining companies are looking for new alternatives, Canaan sees their diversification as a “logical step” in the development of the company. Not only to manufacture equipment, as it had been up to now, but also to produce the computing power necessary to mine bitcoins. The hash rate in the last month has dropped to 50% since the recent bans on mining in several provinces of China.
Other mining companies are also leaving China, some are leaving the city of Canton, northeast of Hong Kong, to move their bitcoin mining equipment to Maryland , in United States, as reported by a journalist on Twitter.
El Salvador and Argentina: will they attract the attention of Bitcoin miners?
The Bitcoin hash rate had increased significantly in recent years, but with a notable concentration in China, a country that for years has been responsible for much of the computing power behind Bitcoin. Now it seems that everything is about to change.
When most miners would be looking for new spaces to settle, possible candidates such as Kazakhstan, which stands out for its proximity to China, have emerged. There are also others such as the United States and Canada that already have large mining farms .
However, El Salvador and Argentina also stand out as Latin countries with potential for Bitcoin mining. In fact, the Canadian company Bitfarms Ltd., is advancing in its plans to build a gigantic Bitcoin mining center in Argentina, a project in which it has been working since October last year.
Bitfarms signed a Eight-year energy agreement with a local private company that, for the first four years, will secure you 210 megawatts of electricity at a price of 0.02 kilowatts per hour. This shows that other agreements could be underway with Chinese companies dedicated to mining.
The same happens in El Salvador, where they are talking of a “plan to offer Bitcoin mining facilities with very cheap energy, 100% clean, 100% renewable and with zero emissions, taking advantage of volcanic activity,” as noted by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
But, in addition to volcanic energy, El Salvador has other sources that can encourage Bitcoin mining . The Central American country is building its fifth large hydroelectric plant, which would come into operation in 2022, with a generation capacity of 67 megawatts (MW), according to local media.
In addition, in that nation the largest wind farm in the region is built . «During a technical visit carried out by company officials, it was explained that the largest wind farm in Central America has 10 of its 15 wind turbines, in addition to being the highest in the region at 120 meters high, they allow the injection of electricity to the national grid ”, Forbes pointed out last February.
On the other hand, in December of last year, the company AES El Salvador inaugurated the solar power plant Opico Power, which generates 5.2 MWp of sustainable energy . The same company previously installed the Moncagua solar plant, and developed another similar project called Bósforo, which generates 100 MW of renewable energy through 10 solar plants. With such diversification of energy sources, El Salvador becomes a country with great potential for bitcoin mining.
