On the edge of a tiny Chinese town is a strange building where you can get an insight into the future – and only a handful of people know what is happening inside.

I am on my way to visit one of the biggest bitcoin mines in the world: where up to $8m in digital currency is generated per year by solving complicated mathematical algorithms with computers.

The location is secret and I have been invited under the strict condition that I live onsite with the miners. The owners don’t want to broadcast their specific location, because while the Chinese government is neither officially pro or against bitcoin, the huge amount of money flowing from these mines is outside state control.