The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBEBI) has finally updated its website with new data on the current state of the bitcoin (BTC) mining world.
The new data shows that the United States has now become by far the largest bitcoin mining country in the world since the ban in China.
New #CBECIA mining map update!
Following the government-mandated crackdown on the Chinese mining industry in June 2021, the US now emerges as the leading #Bitcoin mining center with ± 35% of total hashrate as of August 2021. pic.twitter.com/VbYIJCJUAU
— Michel Rauchs (@mrauchs) October 13, 2021
The US has a hash rate, or the computing power, of about 42.7 exashashes per second (EH/s) now controls a whopping 35.4% of the mining market. That was only 16.8% in April, which is an increase of no less than 105% in less than six months.
This is followed by Kazakhstan with 18.1%, Russia with 11% and Canada with 9.5%. Ireland then comes in at 4.7%, Malaysia at 4.6%, Germany at 4.5% and Iran at 3.1%. The Netherlands is responsible for about 0.15%. CBEBI reports that China’s “reported” share is now effectively 0%, up from 75.5% in September 2019.
New: Watch the US overtake China as the world’s largest Bitcoin mining hub just two months after Beijing’s crypto ban.
Great fun working on this graphic with @sdbernard for @EllieOlcott‘s story. Data from Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.https://t.co/BCMPyUZY2T pic.twitter.com/kTGjD5GK8y
— Sam Joiner (@samjoiner) October 13, 2021
The Chinese government further tightened its ban on crypto at the beginning of this summer and several provinces had completely banned crypto mining. That led to a massive departure of miners from the country as well as foreign companies that purchased large-scale mining equipment.
For years, however, the Bitcoin network received a lot of criticism for the fact that China controlled such a large part. It went against the idea of decentralization, so in that sense the ban may have had a positive impact.
“The effect of the Chinese crackdown is a wider geographical spread of the hash rate around the world. That can be seen as a positive development for Bitcoin’s network security and decentralized principles.”
Despite this, the energy consumption still receives a lot of criticism. According to CBEBI, this currently amounts to approximately 100 Terawatt hours per year, slightly below 110 TWh for the whole of the Netherlands. Gradually, these companies are increasingly moving their operations to green resources, although the exact percentage of this is still unclear. It should also be taken into account that these CBEBI figures run until August, since then the hash rate has increased quite a bit.
