The Sichuan City of Ya’an Authorities Want to Eliminate Crypto Miners

The government officials of the Sichuan city of Ya’an have launched a campaign to expel cryptocurrency mining businesses from the region, and they have opened a hunt for miners. Bloomberg reported this with reference to one of the local miners. The report says that the administration of the hydropower-rich city has promised the Sichuan provincial authorities to begin a “large-scale” eradication of the mining business.

According to the source, the city authorities intend to get rid of bitcoin and ether miners by the end of the year. However, the representative of the Yaan administration said that he did not know anything about the plans to expel the mining business. According to PANews, the city accounts for about 10% of the hash rate of the Bitcoin network.

Yaan’s initiative comes after the Sichuan authorities demanded that the main mining centers stop working until June 20, and also banned energy companies from providing services to them. It is noteworthy that earlier it was also reported that the meeting between the business representatives and the authorities of Sichuan was held in a “positive” manner.

At that meeting, it was clarified whether cryptocurrency mining is having a detrimental effect on hydropower in the region. According to unofficial data, the entire Sichuan province accounts for more than 30% of the hash rate of the bitcoin network. In turn, the authorities of another Chinese province – Inner Mongolia have already proposed a number of measures aimed at banning cryptocurrency mining in the region.

The authorities are outlawing miners

Earlier, the provincial authorities proposed to ban the supply of electricity to miners. Moreover, the use of idle computing equipment for the extraction of digital assets was also suggested to be considered illegal.

After the statements of Liu He, the chairman of the State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee, some Chinese regions began to set jurisdiction against cryptocurrency mining. The official said in his speech that the Chinese authorities intend to stop bitcoin mining and trading activities. Moreover, Liu He warned that individuals should not take risks.

When a coal mine in Sichuan province suffered an accident in April 2021, it caused massive power outages. Resulting in a 30% drop in the bitcoin hash rate. However, Sichuan still ranks second among cryptocurrency miners, behind only the northwest region of Xinjiang.