Electricity Wastage Leading to a Ban on Cryptocurrency Mining in China

In the wake of cryptocurrency mining being listed as one of the hazardous and wasteful activities by China’s central state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, Chinese government has decided to ban cryptocurrency mining in the country. China, after remaining the hub of bitcoin mining has now plans drafted to terminate the activity.

The list generated by China’s central state planner included more than 450 activities  which failed to abide by the regulations  and are categorized unsafe for either they lead to a wastage of resources or pollutes the environment.  

Drawing inferences from an anonymous Chinese bitcoin trader, Reuters noted, “Bitcoin mining wastes a lot of electricity,”

Bitcoin, one of the most popular cryptocurrency hit a record high by the end of 2017 and touched $5,000 for the first time ever since November.  This week, it was down by 1.4 percent along with Ripple’s XRP and Ethereum, which fell down by the same margin.

Lately, cryptocurrency has been under inspection in China and eventually, it led to the banning of initial coin offerings and shutting down of local trading exchanges. With electricity being a crucial factor determining the ban, countries with inexpensive electricity have now emerged as the key hosts of cryptocurrency mining.