Key facts:
Active teams migrate to other parts of Asia, new machines go to North America.
This migration process may not be completed until the first quarter of 2022.
The migration of mining equipment leaving China is already a reality. Many of the Bitcoin mining machines that are leaving the Asian country are destined for North America, Europe or other areas of Central Asia, such as Kazakhstan.
The report stems from a series of tweets by Edward Evenson, head of business development at Braiins, a digital mining company that manages one of the ten largest Bitcoin mining pools today, Slush Pool.
According to Evenson, many teams that were already dedicated to mining Bitcoin are moving from the Xinjiang region to other areas on the Asian continent. In the meantime, new machines are being shipped directly by manufacturers Bitmain and MicroBT to North America, mostly.
Many have anticipated heavy migrations of miners in the face of a potential wave of measures by the Chinese government against mining farms in the country. As CriptoNoticias reported recently, that interest has been reported on the part of the authorities, which has generated a wave of fear in the industry and a steep drop in network processing power.
However, the executive assured that this is not a new situation, but “the continuation of a trend that was already underway by Chinese miners, who have expanded into Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia and, to a lesser extent, , North America”. Evenson added that the total megawatts that would come out of the Asian giant is equivalent to the capacity of miners in the entire Canadian region of Quebec.
Just like various personalities in the bitcoiner environment, Evenson sees this increased distribution as good news for Bitcoin and the mining industry. Especially when energy is being exchanged mainly from coal (as is the case in China) for renewable energy, especially in areas like Canada.
Precisely, the issue of the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining has been on the table for a couple of weeks. Above all, because of the attacks of the billionaire Elon Musk. Musk himself, with the support of Michael Saylor (MicroStrategy) formed the Bitcoin Mining Council, through which the main miners of North America hope to generate more environmentally friendly mining policies.
More distribution = a more decentralized network
“Hashrate is increasingly being distributed around the world, reducing attack vectors and alleviating concerns about the use of coal energy in Xinjiang. Good timing considering recent developments around the issue of energy use and mining. “
Edward Evenson, Braiins head of business development.
A more distributed processing power in the world also reduces the dependency of the network with respect to a particular area. With most of the hash rate in Chinese territory, for example, the Bitcoin network has been at the expense of large sudden drops in accumulated computing power in seasons of heavy rain in the areas of the Asian giant with the highest concentration of mining machines.
Although the miners’ movement is already underway, Evenson warned that this will not finish brewing anytime soon. According to their estimates, This is a long process that will not be completed until the end of the first quarter of 2022.
