It is a well-known fact that Chinese miners control a disproportionately huge amount of the BTC hash rate. China controls over two-thirds of the BTC hash rate. However, what is even more surprising is that about half of all BTC hash rate is controlled by one province in China.

According to a report by CoinShares, BTC miners in China’s Sichuan province control about 54% of the BTC hash rate. Out of the remaining 35% hash rate outside China, the report estimates that bout about 31%of the global hash rate is split evenly between Alberta, British Columbia, New York, Washington, Newfoundland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Siberia, Quebec, Iran, Georgia, and Kazakhstan.

The Source of Energy

The CoinShares report also claims that most of the BTC mining energy comes from renewable sources. This is contrary to various naysayers who have claimed BTC could cause an energy crisis in the world and increase the global carbon footprint. The report notes that BTC power consumption will hit $5.4 billion in 2019.

According to the report, 73% of BTC miners source their energy from renewable sources. If this claim is confirmed, it is not going to sit well with critics of crypto mining who claim that BTC is destroying the planet.

According to the report, most of the BTC mining activity is clustered around cheap sources of renewable power. For instance, Sichuan province in China is renowned for its cheap hydropower, which has encouraged most miners to set up shop in the province.

CoinShares notes that this could be good for the world. It could help to bring value to under-utilized sources of renewable power and make them profitable. In fact, it claims that BTC mining could be a major driver of renewable energy developments in areas that would not have been profitable to do so in the past.

The report notes that the BTC hash rate has reached all-time highs in 2019. It concludes that this is likely due to the release on even more powerful chips used in mining rigs by Bitmain, a Chinese-based firm, which is the main –producer of high-end BTC mining rigs.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

