The US and Kazakhstan are witnessing a surge in bitcoin mining operations after China came down hard on cryptocurrency. It was revealed thanks to the new data on global energy consumption for mining. Bitcoin mining is a digital process that brings new digital currency into circulation by crunching complex math equations and requires high amounts of energy.
Months before China’s crackdown on mining operations, experts had suggested that infrastructure development for mining in the country came to a halt in anticipation of an official ban. As per new data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), China contributed 76 percent of the power consumed for mining in September 2019 to 45 percent in April 2021.
US witnessed a surge in mining operations
During the same period, the power consumption in the US rose from 4 percent to 17 percent, while that of Kazakhstan rose from 1.4 to 8.2 percent, making it the third-largest bitcoin mining hub in the world. The analysis was derived from the data from four bitcoin mining pools across the globe that represents somewhere between 32 and 37 percent of the total power consumed over the examined period.
Experts believe the mass transition of crypto mining out of China could make the US share of the mining business bigger. “A majority of the new equipment manufactured from May 2020 through December 2020 was shipped to the U.S. and Canada,” Mike Colyer, CEO of digital currency company Foundry, told CNBC News.
Renewable energy is the key
However, only 1.4 percent of Kazakhstan’s energy supply comes from renewable sources and most of it comes from fossil fuels. On the other hand, renewable sources contribute to around 11 percent of US electricity.
Despite this change, more than half of the mining across the world have stopped operating and the entire global network of miners who were using 132 terawatt-hours of energy in mid-May, made use of only 59 terawatt-hours in July. Using renewable sources to mine cryptocurrency can be a good option and beneficial for miners as well. El Salvador that made Bitcoin an official currency will soon be using volcanoes to mine bitcoins.
