Anhui Province shuts down block reward miners, cites power shortage

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China’s relentless crackdown on the block reward mining industry continues, with Anhui province becoming the latest to join the clampdown. The province has ordered block reward miners to shut down, citing power shortages that it believes the miners have contributed to.

As CoinGeek reported, Sichuan Province ordered electricity providers not to supply power to block reward miners a month ago. Sichuan identified the 26 largest miners in the province by name and asked power companies to cease any relations with them. Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Xinajing and Qinghai have also instituted varying measures to stamp out the miners.

Anhui, which is in East China, becomes the sixth province in China to clamp down on miners.

According to local reports, the ban in Anhui is primarily due to power shortages. This is slightly different from crackdowns in provinces like Inner Mongolia in which the focus was mainly on China’s overall move towards reducing its carbon footprint. Crackdowns in the other provinces have mirrored the severity of their mining bans. In Inner Mongolia, the authorities have proposed harsh punishments for those found mining digital currencies, including social blacklisting that could effectively deny them access to basic services like transport.

Anhui cited a directive by the State Grid Corporation of China, the national electricity distributor, which has urged authorities to shut down block reward miners. State Grid has requested provinces like Anhui which have insufficient power supply currently to take immediate measure to avoid blackouts.

The State Grid Corporation of China has issued a notice to all parts of the country requesting the closure of virtual currency mining. At present, some provinces with insufficient power in China, such as Henan and Anhui, have also begun to implement it. pic.twitter.com/kgDY1msDQ5

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 14, 2021

It’s not just the block reward miners that Anhui is shutting down, however. The province is going to be denying licenses to operations that require large amounts of power.

Chinese miners have been said to be targeting Texas in the U.S. to be their next home. However, as Lars Jorgensen, the chief operating officer at TAAL Distributed Information Technologies Inc. (CSE:TAAL | FWB:9SQ1 | OTC: TAALF) told CoinGeek, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Setting up in the U.S. could take up to 18 months.

He said, “Miners cannot have their machines just sitting around doing nothing for 9 to 18 months, that’s way too expensive… They will make a detour to Kazakhstan and they will stay there until the North American sites are ready to go.”

Watch: CoinGeek Zurich panel, BSV is Green Bitcoin: Energy Consumption & Environmental Sustainability