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Bitcoin mining companies eyeing move to U.S. amid crypto-crackdown in China - YouTube
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bitcoin moguls in china could be
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relocating to the united states a new
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report from the washington post
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says roughly 60 to 70 percent of chinese
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cryptocurrency miners
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are expected to move their operations to
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the west
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environmentalists have largely
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criticized the practice of crypto mining
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for its high level of energy use
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jerry sheeh is the author of that report
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and joins me now he's a china reporter
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for the washington post
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jerry thanks for being here so why are
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bitcoin miners uh
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who made their fortunes in china now
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trying to come to the us
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sure it's the the reason simply is that
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we're seeing
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um an unprecedented crackdown by the
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chinese government on cryptocurrency in
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just the last couple of weeks now
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for the last couple of years there's
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been quite a lot of uncertainty
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about how the chinese government views
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this this newfangled
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sector and for the most part we've seen
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this explosion
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in mining in china largely because
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electricity there is so
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cheap with this glut of cheap coal and
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cheap hydro power and so at one point
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we've had 70
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uh 75 of all the bitcoin mining those in
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the
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that was happening in the world
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happening in these large-scale
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industrial mines in china
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and if you add all of that mining
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activity together uh chinese
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researchers were estimating that the
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amount of electricity
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that was being consumed by all of these
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mines put together could
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equal or surpass the nation of italy by
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2024
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and so obviously there's been a lot of
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concerns about the electricity use
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that this industry consumes in china
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the government of course wants to show
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that it is being serious about its
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carbon neutrality goals but then many
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analysts say that look
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at the end of the day this is a
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communist party government that cares
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very much about
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controlling the financial sector and um
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you know maintaining a grip on things
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like um tax evasion
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which are also um uh which are also
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concerns for
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governments including the bidet
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administration and so you put all that
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together and we've seen this crackdown
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in the last couple of months
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where one province after another in
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china are banning crypto mining
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uh and we've seen um the the chinese
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authorities even arrest
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people for um cryptocurrency related
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crimes
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so that explains uh why many of these
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crypto miners are coming and and it's
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really interesting because
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as you opened your article uh you you
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start thinking
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um wow this is really not not maybe the
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image that we necessarily
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have in our head with that first example
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having 300 000
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uh computers all going simultaneously to
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try and mine these bitcoins
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but i i'm wondering jerry as they're
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trying to come to the united states
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which states are they really
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targeting and why sure and so
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on the one hand you have this push
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factor right so you have the chinese
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government
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all over china cracking down on this
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they're even setting up these hotlines
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for citizens to call in to essentially
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rat out
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if they suspect any illegal bitcoin
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mining operations are happening and so
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these miners
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the last couple of weeks they've been
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looking all over the world um actually
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this has been going on
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the last couple of months they have
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considered maybe moving their
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computers as you say these are enormous
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rigs of tens of thousands of computers
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rigged together that consume enormous
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amounts of energy
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and they've been considering do we put
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this in russia do we put this in central
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asia do we put these computers in latin
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america or southeast asia where can we
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go
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that would have a sort of cheap
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electricity
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and be that would have a relatively
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stable environment and
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at the end of the day many of them are
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realizing that yes the united states
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it might have electricity prices that
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are they estimate
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about six times higher than in china but
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they think that the u.s might be the
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most stable and and safest place for
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them to
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carry out some of these operations one
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miner told me he had sent
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tens of thousands of computers to the
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middle east his colleagues had sent
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a similar number to russia in each of
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those cases
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whether it was corrupt police or um you
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know
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other uh factors of uncertainty where
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they suddenly saw their machines
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confiscated or taken away
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and they're betting that well uh you
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know at least america might provide a
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semblance of a more
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sort of a stable business environment
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for them to to do this type of work
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but as you mentioned in your piece jerry
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it's not necessarily the case that
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uh that u.s lawmakers are welcoming
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these bitminers
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you point out the case in new york state
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that lawmakers there are considering
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legislation that would actually ban
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new bitcoin mining and carbon producing
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power
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plants what is the status of that type
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of legislation
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yeah so right now we're seeing sort of a
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sort of a patchwork
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of regulation across the states so um
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you know you were asking earlier what
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are exactly locations these miners are
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considering i spoke to some
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who were thinking about places like west
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texas
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other people are talking about places
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like
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south dakota tennessee upstate new york
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but of course the regulations in each of
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these places we've seen
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a huge variety so currently there is
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a dispute in upstate new york between uh
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private
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private equity investors who took over a
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former power plant and they've
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essentially turned this power plant into
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a bitcoin mine worth tens of millions of
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dollars
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and this has generated a dispute between
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the local sierra club
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and other community members and the
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investors
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which has led to discussion in the new
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york state legislature
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about whether they should begin to put a
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tighter
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control on these types of bitcoin
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operations we've seen
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local communities in missoula montana
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for example also passed laws
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and so on the other hand you have towns
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in
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west texas that is inviting people to
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come you have
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the state of kentucky that's also
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offering tax breaks
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for bitcoin miners to come and so you
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know whether
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that sort of gets smoothed out between
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the various jurisdictions
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that's probably going to take a while to
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to shake out and of course the biggest
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question
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right is sort of what we're going to see
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from the buying administration at the
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federal level
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yeah i was just going to ask you that
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what uh what did the white house
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actually
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what they feel about bitcoin mining have
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they taken
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a stance on this migration of miners
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you know for now i would say it's too
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early to say
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we know that the treasury department we
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know that the irs and other government
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agencies
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have been briefing uh the biden
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administration on
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sort of we know what are some of the
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issues at play here
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um you know we have heard uh from the
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likes of senator elizabeth warren
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who has called on the administration to
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sort of take a tougher
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tougher tack we do know of course that
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president biden has
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publicly laid out sort of climate change
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as one of his big
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sort of policy agenda items and so you
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would think
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that this administration might take a a
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slightly tougher attack if you were to
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consider
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the enormous energy use that this
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industry
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um sort of churns through but you know
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at this point
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i think the administration is still very
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early in its sort of process
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of analyzing all the facts and laying
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out a coherent
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policy all right jerry sheeh thank you
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thank you
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