Bitcoin Forum

https://qz.com/1026605/photos-chinas-bitcoin-mines-and-miners/


PRETTY PICTURES.

Interestingly, the bitcoin plant photographed sits adjacent to a hydroelectric power plant. All of its energy comes from a renewable & natural source which seems to contradict the media perspective which says bitcoin is bad for the environment and contributes to climate change.

The photos might also help explain why GPU's and ASIC's to some degree are scarce commodities and not as easy to find as they used to be.

Until now, I don't understand why the Chinese are more interested in bitcoin then other people. We need to see more of these mining farms around the world or It will be just a matter of time until we see centralization If we could call it that way. (This is valid for exchanges as well)

Cool article, but pictures of mining equipment fail to excite me for some reason.  They need to break down all those damn boxes, too, and chuck that packing material (two more photos that leave me meh).   Mountains are nice, and getting all that cheap electricity is even nicer.  Awesome place to mine bitcoin at.

To make money. They have the tech, the manufacturing, the bodies, the electricity and the property going spare. Nowhere else can match it.

And it's already centralised.

Electricity is dirt cheap in China, they have the hardware and the knowledge to make it work, they basically have all what they need to make this a success and they are not going to let the opportunity go to waste, so I do not think the situation you are describing is going to change anytime soon.

Jesus....how can you compete with this. I bet they don't pay for elecricity..

Quite a few mines have been built to be near under utilised power stations with oodles of electricity going spare. I don't know about free but it's possible.

It might be because they get ASIC mining machines at very low prices and also their electriity charges would also be cheap.We have already seen china dominating our bitcoin environment by just dumping and then buying bitcoins at cheap price.Thanks to PBOC because since it ha regulated bitcoin exchanges,their dominance have come to an end in bitcoin community.

First of all, such facility is a major business / investment, probably made by some business man agreed by the government. Those guys are employees. Don't compare with a guy next door having a couple of miners in the garage.
Second, China does as many investments as possible to get anything possible that holds value. The labor is cheap and somehow they try to get more than their local currency.
This makes gold, dollar, western companies, shares, properties all over the world, cryptocurrencies (and many other things I didn't think of) a target to store their wealth.

China is one of the largest bitcoin miners in the world. Many of them are young people. Maybe the tech of bitcoin is a way to make rich for chinese people becuase with bitcoin they can earn   invisible asset. This asset not tracked by the government and taxes.

All that water around all that electricity doesn't seem like a good mix   

amazing, but Until now, I don't understand why the Chinese are more interested in bitcoin then other people  ??? :-\

because they can product asic with cheap production cost, and with very cheap electricity they have a huge edge on other country, and this make sense for them to start mining operations, other country have other problems like too much hot or too much expensive shipping cost and they can't product asic at home

It's high-voltage pillars on the last picture ? (roof)  :o

They do pay, but India and China have the lowest electricity prices and most importantly China is the world's top most producer of renewable electricity, hydro and coal power.

China is leading with bitcoin mining, bitcoin trading volume, manufacturing of bitcoin equipments. As far as the Chinese government thinks bitcoin mining operation is not affecting their economy they wouldn't mind sharing their excess, cheap electricity with miners.

Yeah the water is a bit scary.

Using hydro is better in theory, except if that means more coal plants have to be run to compensate for what is used there.

Chinese people love BTC because it's not controlled by their government. The Chinese government screws with their money big time.

So this is like tax evasion for westerners.

What is up with the water on the floor on the last picture? Condensation perhaps? The humidity must be pretty high.. if it is situated so close to

a water plant and the heat from all of those miners must be intense... not to mention the noise. What more do you want than having limitless

supply of cheap electricity! { State subsidized Bitcoin farming }  ::)

Statistically, I think china has 14 of the top 30 most polluted cities in the world. That's an unfortunate result of reliance on coal to generate electricity. Its an interesting point that never comes up in climate change discussions where the united states is heavily penalized for greenhouse gas emissions while china and other more heavily polluting nations get a free pass.

It is also interesting to note that china, russia, saudi arabia and other nations have a policy of not accepting any refugees.

While the united states, france, germany, uk & other countries have the media cram open border, pro immigration, policies down their throats.

I'm not certain if bitcoin can save us from these types of things. The media likes to overexaggerate small problems while ignoring big ones.

I would like to know how much hash power they are generating as i could not see anything about that in the article.I really feel sad for the workers as it says that they have to hitch hike more than twenty kilometers to reach the nearest town which is cruel,since the labor and electricity is cheap we are seeing more farms from China.

Maybe without these mines there would not be adopters of BTC and not so well stored as price. But who knows who has so much money in China to make a whole mountain to mine.

The Paris climate accord is all about greenhouse gas emissions, whatever their source is. Each country has set up targets, China too. They're by far the country investing the most in green tech. At this rate the USA, not China, will be the last country on the planet running coal powerplants.

Its a moot point. Deforestation is the real cause of climate change and drought.

Inland, a large proportion of rainfall comes from water evaporated from the leaves of plants/trees. Deforestation cuts down forests which reduces water evaporation causing decreased rainfall. The end result is drought.

Forests also naturally store carbon in a process known as carbon sequestration. Deforestation limits the planet's ability to store carbon which leads to higher overall emissions.

The Paris Accord is pointless as it addresses only emissions and does nothing to curb deforestation which is the real cause of our climate change & drought issues. Statistically 80% of the world's natural forests have been cut down. There is no real effort to fix the climate until that point is discussed.

IHS released its ranking today that put Trina Solar as the top shipper of solar panels in 2014, followed by Yingli Green Energy. Both companies are based in China, which has dominated the solar equipment manufacturing business for many years now.Dec 3, 2014

So even if they are contributing most to greenhouse gas emission, they offset that by helping other countries to reduce it, by manufacturing the most solar panels.

This Bitcoin Farm makes use of renewable energy too, which is good.

This!
It looks like a good place to have a Bitcoin mining plant, but it doesn't look very high tech. And what is with the standing water inside next to the miners? I get using water coolers, but water on the ground deosn't look very professional and can't be safe.

It looks like the owner is in it for a quick buck to me. They picked out a great location, but are half arsing it with the other stuff. How about they dispose of their rubbish/trash?

Deforestation is part of the accord, and is considered an emission. Part of the pledged money is supposed to go towards stopping it and reversing the trend in developing countries.

I've read and watched  numerous videos about Chinese bitcoin mines. It seems like bitcoin mines are more common in China. Probably due to cheap electicity. Also, there was one video I've watched about a short interview with a mine owner, whereas he said he didn't know what bitcoin was. What he only know id that having a mine makes him money. LOL

Great pictures, although I think it belongs to the Mining section. )

Once again Chinese are showing they are in the front row. You don't do things like that if you don't believe in Bitcoin. They know they will be rich in the future with Bitcoins they can mine here. Good job!

On Vice there was video news about it, they went in deep China in some city I don't remember the name and there was that old factory. Pretty big place, and in each floor they are mining difrent coin. They mined btc ltc and one other coin, I'm not sure is it ETH or some other coin. I was amazed on what high level they are, there was a guy that was showing all that, talking about many things but nothing about how much money they are earning with this mining, that remained mistery.
Is there some info about how much they can earn? Even in this thread nobody shared any info about that, it would be interesting to know that.

Amazing, chinese miners never fails to amaze me.

It must be cost a lot of money and electricity.
But with all those machines and infrastructure, the could covered everything right?
And of course lots of money.

that is one big mining setup.,  i wonder how many bitcoins are they mining per day. and how much hash power in total are those ASIC miners are generating.,
but to setup something like that , it needs lots of money., ASIC miners are not cheap., and whats the fun in selling btc right away after mining., so they must be holding bitcoins for long term.,
i think electrictyy must be cheal in china a electronis are cheap and labour is also cheap., so its very possible for them.,

I wonder if those employees are being paid in bitcoin with their salaries. Given the hazards of working at such an environment, they should at least be getting some incentives to cover for the maintenance work they have to attend to, plus being far away from their families.

If this pictures is any thing to go by, then I am wowed to the level of investment put in place in other to generate bitcoin that we all use as if its something that can be gotten from a snap. Its also a confirmation as to how difficult it has become to mine bitcoin in addition to refute the claims if several cloud mining sites that just crop up every now and then claiming to mine bitcoin whereas they are just bunch of ponzi sites.

And this is another big reason, if you think the US government plays and manipulates the US dollar then that is child play compared to what the Chinese government does that is why some Chinese citizens are desperate to find ways to get around the regulations of the government and bitcoin is the perfect way to do it.

The Chinese pretty much have all the supplies so it's a lot cheaper for them to produce or purchase huge amounts of miners since the middelmen is cut out. An European/American business has to either buy the inventory of a retailer or find connections in China to do so. Not to mention the electricity costs and shipping. Adding up tot that bitcoin is still brand new and extremely volatile, an entire business mining bitcoin could potentially go bankrupt if bitcoin were to crash for 6 months.

You should know by now that governments never really fix anything. They're usually the source of our problems, not the solution for them. After the last haiti earthquake the UN stepped in and promised to help haitians. Then the UN infected 700,000 haitians with cholera "helping" them. Millions of dollars were pledged to help haitians. Hillary and Bill Clinton gave all of that money to private contractors that funded their campaigns and haitians got nothing. Many governments say they support innovation and progress. Then they pass laws which restrict the innovation and advancement of crypto currencies like bitcoin.

On the topic of climate change, the paris accord will do nothing to prevent deforestation in indonesia or brazil where its needed. It contains no programs to diminish consumption of palm oil, paper, beef and assorted goods associated with the deforestation process. It doesn't contain incentives for afforestation, seed bombing, or specific methods to combat climate change. It won't do anything useful. All it will do is impoverish wealthy nations to prop up failing ones to ensure that every major country on earth that still has freedom ends up like venezuela and greece as they've done for the past 30+ years.

People think the state is their god & their god is obligated to save us from our sins. That's not necessarily the way things work.

The third image shows all that water on the floor,that may not be considered very safe,but maybe  someone else has another perspective,because for example, those guys do not seem to bring any kind of protection,like gloves, insulated boots,and by logic should use at least those minimum safety equipment when working with so many electrical appliances regardless of whether they are used or not,in case of an eventuality.

Incredible images. I love this article.

Thanks for sharing!

Employees at a bitcoin mine in Sichuan.

I hope you guys are having fun ... that leaking on the floor means nothing ...  ;D

There are farms around the world. People just like to fixate on Chinese exchanges for some reason. I guess because they are the biggest. There are also lots in North America and Europe but they get a lot less exposure.

Well guys, if you didn’t know this, China is one of the biggest bitcoin miners out there and this is mostly due to a couple of reasons

1.Electricity is basically free there and if you mine bitcoin, usually what you are trying to break even with are your electricity bills, and most miners barely break even, while in China, someone mining bitcoins with a dodgy setup would easily earn more than there electricity bills since it is so cheap, so why wouldn’t you mine bitcoin?
2.A lot of the Chinese people believe in bitcoin and have taken the risk for mining.

We have tough competition.

looks like their mines are suffering from water flood. Maybe invest in a water pump  ;D

Probably not, the conditions in China when it comes to your workplace are not the best, I have my doubts they even know what they are doing at all, that way by keeping them ignorant about the purpose of the operation then you can avoid paying them in bitcoins.

I mean, I'd sure be happy to work there for as long as it's profitable. Most of the day you're probably just chilling and monitoring the systems, fixing things if they break and so on.

I also think being situated in between those mountains will decrease their exposure to direct sunlight during the day. < for longer periods > This will lead to cooler temperatures and less expenses on electricity to run fans or Air-conditioning. This will decrease their operating cost and increase their profits.

Location is very important, when you have to decide on the placement of these farms. ^smile^ 

I think this people can see deeper into technology more than some of us can. It is a good one and I really hope something like this can be seen globally like you said. But man! That's huge but that location though!

I haven't read the entire article, but the photos show a lot of mining rigs. What kind of machines are they? And approx. how many BTC they might be mining each day?

Exactly, I wish they could disclose the effective hashing power of the mine for us to learn. It's interesting the Chinese are keenly interested in Bitcoin mining and the article has been very revealing.

Yeah interesting pictures from China. These people are always cooperative within each other and make a good example out if them. No offence but that makes them very strong when creating a new technology or producing goods from something. The set up seems to be perfectly arranged right in front of hydro power. But I want to ask one question are they really harnessing that power with full efficiency? I mean the miners I'm talking about. Though it's hydro power but what dies it make them to build the mine so close to hydro generator. For sure they won't be giving it free.

That's awesome rig out in the China. They must be pulling out heavy electricity from that hydro electric power generator. They must have made big plans before setting up this rig. It is such profit to them by using that renewable energy source and that too with short distance.

Just noticed that the facility is located at the  Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. Why they chose this remote location?