A Brief Glimpse Into the Lives of Chinese Bitcoin Miners

Ever wonder what it’s like to work at a bitcoin mining farm in China? Just recently two reports revealed the inner workings of Chinese bitcoin mines operating in the country’s Sichuan prοvince.

Also read: Japan’s Cryptocurrency Business Association Plans for August 1 Guidelines

China’s Central Television’s Bitcoin Mining Facility Documentary

Last week on July 11, China’s Central Television (CCTV-2) channel aired a special documentary on bitcoin mining operations located in Kangding county in the southwest region of the country. The channels news reporter drives to a desolate mountainous area in Sichuan to visit a three-story mining data center. Each floor is filled with mining rigs housed on metal racks and surrounded by massive fans. CCTV also interviews Wang, the young data center owner in his twenties who runs five mining sites in the area. According to a translation from the local publication, 8btc, Wang says he runs a medium sized data center that can grow bigger. The twenty-year-old native says the operation mines 16 BTC (US$30,000) a day.

“We are a middle-sized mining factory with 5000 bitcoin miners,” explains Wang. “We still have room to run another 5000 mining machines.”

Wang and the data center’s operations manager Xu says lots of people are choosing to set up mining sites in Xinjiang, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Inner Mongolia. The reason for this is cheaper electricity from hydropower stations located in the mountains. Wang details that typically electricity in China is 0.7 yuan per KwH, but by partnering with neighboring hydropower stations mining facilities are paying 0.3 yuan per KwH (about 0.045 USD at the time of writing).

“[Electricity] is directly transmitted from nearby hydropower stations,” Wang tells the CCTV journalist. “This is mainly why we set up the site here. Bitcoin mining is electricity-consuming and 50 percent of our profits go to the electricity bill.”

The price is the outcome of our negotiation with the hydropower station. Put simply, we made a deal with them and give them part of our profits. They provide electricity, we provide machines, and we share the profits. It’s win-win.

‘Why Should We Pay Taxes for Playing Games?’

According to CCTV’s broadcast, an executive at the Sichuan Electric Power Company says that these mining sites are not supposed to partner with hydropower stations. The sites have been investigated he says, but nothing materialized from the local government inspection. Furthermore, Wang says he doesn’t pay taxes for his bitcoin revenue.

“Why should I?…We are mining bitcoin, it’s all about computational power. It’s like playing games. Why should we pay taxes for playing games?”

A Sichuan Bitcoin Miner ‘s Dorm Life

Another report from the Chinese photographer Liu Xingzhe covers the interesting world of Chinese bitcoin mines. Liu’s photographs show workers at data centers in another area located in the Sichuan prοvince living in dormitories and taking care of machines for weeks on end. Many of the workers travel from other towns and hitchhike to the remote mountainous region to make a better salary than most local jobs.

Miners at Lui’s farm work during all hours of the day and evening reassembling calculatiοn bοards and fixing malfunctioning machines in the middle of the night. Lui tells the publication he has moved his mining operation from Henan to Sichuan to leverage the cheaper electricity in the region. Additionally, Lui details that he manages roughly 7,000 mining rigs for clients located in China.

One of the bitcoin mine workers explains that the nearest town is roughly 20 miles away and there is nowhere to spend money near the facilities. “Τhe gοοd thing is, there isn’t anywhere tο spend mοney, sο yοu can save yοur whοle salary,” οne miner tοld the photographer Liu Χingzhe.

What do you think about the Chinese bitcoin mining operations? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Liu Χingzhe, CCTV, and 8btc.

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