Speaking on how Bitcoin mining has been evolving in China, a Chinese angel investor in Bitcoin and Ethereum startups has stated that things have changed in the sector in the last one year following the direct involvement of energy companies in the mining process which has decentralized most of operations.

In an interview with ether.camp, Chandler Guo said big miners like himself have – as a result of the energy companies’ entry – have had to shift focus from mining the world’s top digital currency to helping these energy companies to efficiently collect and use their abandoned power to produce and benefit from Bitcoin.

Chandler Guo interviewed with ether.camp photo credit:ethercamp

He says:

“Today, energy companies have jumped into the Bitcoin mining business … Before (now), we buy electricity from them to mine. Today, the seller who sells electricity to us are now mining by themselves. A lot of the energy companies don’t sell electricity to us, they buy equipment from us… Even a small energy company, they can buy one petahash at least. (Or) two petahash. This is more of what is happening in China today. It is more decentralized. I have an energy company. I can mine to make money. For them, it is not for making money actually because for a lot of energy company they have abandoned energy. They cannot sell all.”

He explained that the energy companies buy the mining equipment such as 10 petahash batteries from the Bitcoin mining equipment manufacturers to power Bitcoin mining operations and tried to dispel the view that Chinese miners are winning in Bitcoin because things – including electricity – are cheap in China. He says this is not true and added that every country of the world have the same problem of abandoned energy by companies which they don’t use and it is a matter of how they are managed.

Guo narrated that this initiative, which he says has now made Bitcoin become a kind of energy currency, seems to have gained more interest after he traveled to different parts of China about two years ago seeking to buy electricity from about fifty energy companies.

His offers were repeatedly turned down by the companies which choose not to sell electricity to him despite being unused until he found a small city where they agreed to partner with him to use their abandoned energy to power Bitcoin equipment for mining purposes.

The narrative changed after BBC came in to conduct an interview on his mining operations in the small city, he says, and the idea became known to several other energy companies including those that had earlier rejected his offer and they have all joined in the conversion of abandoned energy to mine Bitcoin.