Despite the shortage of reserves that caused power outages for several days last winter, Texas often has some of the lowest energy prices in the world, and its share of renewable energy is increasing over time.
“We’ll see dramatic changes in the coming months,” said Brandon Arvanaghi, a former security engineer at the crypto exchange Gemini.
2021 data on the global distribution of mining power is not yet available, but past estimates indicate that: 65% to 75% of the world’s Bitcoin mining took place in China, mainly in four provinces in China: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province.
In Inner Mongolia, the drawdown of miners has already begun.
Nic Carter, founding partner of Castle Island Ventures, said it is not entirely clear how China will handle the next step, but it is likely to be phased in.
“Given the drop in hash rates, installations are likely to be off nationwide,” Carter continued, thinking that perhaps 50-60% of Bitcoin’s overall hash rate would eventually leave China.
“The great thing about Bitcoin, which hasn’t been appreciated by many denials, is that it’s a portable market.
This is a good sign for miners who need to build physical equipment in a short period of time.
For one thing, Carter told CNBC that the lead time to build the actual physical infrastructure needed to host a miner would probably be six to nine months.
The storm that devastated a large area of the state in 2020 rekindled the debate over whether Texas should protect its system from the cold.
For years, skeptics have abused the world’s most popular digital tokens to pollute the planet, but proponents have been the strengths of Bitcoin and its role in accelerating the rise of renewable energy.
The country provides important energy vectors from wind, solar and especially hydropower in the south.
If all miners eventually leave China, that means less fossil fuel mining, but it also means less share of the renewable energy mining network.
“Because the mining industry is price sensitive, the lowest cost electricity tends to be renewable in order to find the lowest cost electricity.
The 2020 report shows that many of the most common renewable energy sources are as cheap as or cheaper than traditional energy sources such as coal and gas.
Solar and wind are currently the cheapest sources of energy in the world, but both sources face significant limitations, raising concerns about the feasibility of miners looking exclusively at wind or solar energy.