All the bitcoin (BTC) miners on the planet are rubbing their hands since China banned the mining of cryptocurrencies from its soil. Among the big winners of this end of competition, there is already Canada, which has seized this unexpected opportunity. Nonetheless, the United States, too, could become the new hub of Bitcoin mining, according to Marathon Digital.
500,000 ASIC machines moving from east to west…
Fred Thiel, the CEO of Marathon Digital Group, was recently interviewed by CNBC on the subject of banning BTC mining farms in China. The executive was not only very optimistic on the subject, but also hopes to turn this authoritarian Chinese decision into an opportunity for the US.
Even before this recent ban in China, the US had already become the second largest territory in terms of the number of mining machines – the so-called ASICs. Almost 17% of all such machines were already on US soil by April 2021, a dramatic 151% increase since September 2020.
A trend that is now accelerating at full speed, to the point that Fred Thiel explains that:
“500,000 formerly Chinese mining devices are seeking refuge in the United States (…) If deployed, this would mean that North America would have nearly 40% of the world’s hashrate by the end of 2022.”
… for an ever greener production of bitcoins
As the head of Marathon Digital also points out, this forced escape of miners expelled from China will allow for more environmentally friendly energy sources. The countries where these exiled ASICs settle have indeed more renewable energies and/or much lower carbon emissions.
“This forced migration is definitely a positive in the grand scheme of things (…) Moving the [Bitcoin network] hashrate to the U.S., Canada and Russia will result in a much lower carbon impact.”
Fred Thiel
To top it all off, electricity costs per kilowatt hour are very low in some areas of the US. A point that of course remains eminently crucial for bitcoin miners and explains this attraction to Uncle Sam’s country.
If half a million ASICs do indeed end up in North America, the east-west transition of Bitcoin’s computing power will be complete, which will be a dramatic game-changer for Bitcoin’s future. Soon, these mining machines probably won’t even have to travel, as their main manufacturer, Bitmain, plans to flee China and relocate to the United States.
