The United States is taking advantage of the ban on mining in China decreed last June to recover first place in the world ranking of Bitcoin producers, as evidenced by a study published this Wednesday, October 13.
As a reminder, mining is an energy-intensive process that allows the creation of Bitcoin. For this, powerful processors are used in order to guess the result of complex equations.
“The new data, which runs until the end of August, shows that the United States concentrates 35.4% of the activity against 16.8% at the end of April, followed by Kazakhstan with 18.1% (against 8.2% %) and Russia 11% (against 6.8%), ”Michel Rauchs, author of the Cambridge University study, told Agence France-Presse.
It’s crazy how quickly the United States has replaced China as the leader in bitcoin mining.
Europe is again with absent subscribers … https://t.co/dQbr2udIvD
– Raphaël Bloch (@Raph_Bloch) October 13, 2021
The creation of Bitcoin across the world represents 0.45% of global electricity production, according to estimates from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBCEI), which is the equivalent of a country like the Philippines.
The practice stopped in China
Worried about the considerable development of this decentralized technology on its territory, in competition with the digital yuan launched in March, China has decided to put an end to Bitcoin mining in the country, making the practice illegal at the end of September.
“The direct consequence of the Chinese government’s action has been a worldwide drop of 38%” in the participation of miners in the Bitcoin network, according to Michel Rauchs.
Taking advantage of a more favorable environment in the United States for this practice, with less expensive energy sources, the majority of Chinese miners now carry out this activity on American soil.