Mining distribution comparisson of 2012 vs 2017

[Red-Apple]

we have come a very long way when looking back at mining hashrate distribution back in 2012 and compare it with today.



apart from "pools" which are obviously pools and should have more "total" hashrate the distribution looks good to me.

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[Denker]

And how does distribution looks when you do it by nation states?
Not that much distributed I would say.
And yes I know that it doesn't mean that in all those chinese pools the miners are all located there.
However imo there is still a lot of room for progress I would say.

[Xester]

In 2017 the percentage of hashpower coming from China will increase since another giant mining/ data center will be established in China. The new data center that is located in the Northern part of Xinjiang in China can be considered one of the biggest power consumers that will be included in the list. This implies that China will again  take the lead in the mining industry due to giant mining farms they have established.

[BillyBobZorton]

And how does distribution looks when you do it by nation states?
Not that much distributed I would say.
And yes I know that it doesn't mean that in all those chinese pools the miners are all located there.
However imo there is still a lot of room for progress I would say.

Indeed, China is still king of mining, but what did you expect? in a country where the elctricity is so cheap, and the country that has the most people in the world, that would happen.

China companies compete against each other too tho, or at least that how it should be.

[Kprawn]

Yes, I remember back in those days, all talk was about 51% attacks {Ghash} and what can be done to stop centralization in the mining

sector. I know Gavin always said everyone was over reacting to this scenario and counter measures were in place to stop this from happening.

Other than voluntary movement between pools, I do not know how he planned to stop this. 

[calkob]

Interesting to see the diversity of mining by company now compared to 2012.  thanks for sharing.  who is doing all the mining in Georgia, that is a surprising one

[pawel7777]

And how does distribution looks when you do it by nation states?
Not that much distributed I would say.
And yes I know that it doesn't mean that in all those chinese pools the miners are all located there.
However imo there is still a lot of room for progress I would say.

Indeed, China is still king of mining, but what did you expect? in a country where the elctricity is so cheap, and the country that has the most people in the world, that would happen.

China companies compete against each other too tho, or at least that how it should be.

The problem is not so much about Chinese pools conspiring together (but bear in mind that all major operators probably know each other pretty well), but more about Chinese gov being able to take over the majority of hash-power, or just force pool operators to attack the network if they ever see Bitcoin as a major threat.

[Hazir]

It is funny how trading Bitcoin is officially banned by Icelandic Central Bank, yet they have mining farms there providing 5% of total hash power.
AFAIK mining bitcoin is not regulated by Icelandic Foreign Exchange Act and mining farms can operate freely.

[~Bitcoin~]

Distribution looks way decentralized right now than 4 years back which is nice to see and i think in near future (by next halving) more mining farms will join this "Bitcoin Rush" which will eventually skyrocket the difficulty along with bitcoin price. 

[lumeire]

It is funny how trading Bitcoin is officially banned by Icelandic Central Bank, yet they have mining farms there providing 5% of total hash power.
AFAIK mining bitcoin is not regulated by Icelandic Foreign Exchange Act and mining farms can operate freely.

How then can they cash out their mined BTCBTCBTCs? That's gonna be one interesting business model.

[pawel7777]

It is funny how trading Bitcoin is officially banned by Icelandic Central Bank, yet they have mining farms there providing 5% of total hash power.
AFAIK mining bitcoin is not regulated by Icelandic Foreign Exchange Act and mining farms can operate freely.

It's understandable when you look at the wider context. It's not limited to Bitcoin in any way, it applies to all kind of forex. They just protect their currency (Krone) from speculators after the 2008 banking system collapse.

But if you run a mining-farm and sell your bitcoins outside of the country, that doesn't have any impact on Krone, so that's why it's not disallowed.

...
How then can they cash out their mined BTCBTCBTCs? That's gonna be one interesting business model.

Sell abroad (ie for EUR) --> convert EUR to Krone (within allowad limits) to cover mining expenses.

[Ayers]

And how does distribution looks when you do it by nation states?
Not that much distributed I would say.
And yes I know that it doesn't mean that in all those chinese pools the miners are all located there.
However imo there is still a lot of room for progress I would say.

Wow i didn't know that georgia was so good at mining almost 50% of the network of china, they must have very cheap electricity there, instead i'm surprised that iceland has so tiny love, they have a very cool temperature for cooling and electricity price is cheap as well, like in china

[Catmony]

Wow i didn't know that georgia was so good at mining almost 50% of the network of china, they must have very cheap electricity there, instead i'm surprised that iceland has so tiny love, they have a very cool temperature for cooling and electricity price is cheap as well, like in china

I was also surprised when i see georgia on the list, i have never thought there are many miners also from this country never heard about their connection with bitcoin before. Only few miners in iceland may be due to their strict foreign currency exchange and trading restrictions but i have heard they also have cheap electricity.

[unamis76]

Interesting graphic. And to think we were once worried with centralization and domination of the hashrate from one pool...

But, don't be fooled by better hashrate distribution since chinise miners dominate mining activity. They could reject new BIP, softwork or hardwork, also they could secretly work together

That voting power that comes with hashrate might be a good thing. Chinese are so invested in Bitcoin that they cannot afford it to fail at any cost, so they'll at least choose what's definitely not damaging to Bitcoin.

...
How then can they cash out their mined BTCBTCBTCs? That's gonna be one interesting business model.

Sell abroad (ie for EUR) --> convert EUR to Krone (within allowad limits) to cover mining expenses.

Which just goes to show how cheap electricity is and the profit they have, to be able to afford so many currency trades...

[boybugs18]

Its not surprising that China is the one who has the most power in terms of mining, I do know a countrymen whos in China right now that is still mining but not profiting big but its just a hobby I do envy him because he can do that easily and tried to mine in his lifetime. I do hope that another country will be joining this bitcoin mining for competition.

[countryfree]

I hadn't seen that coming. A quarter of the world's mining is in Georgia. Is there cheap electricity there? Does anyone know any reason to explain why there are so many miners in that small country?

It makes me confident in BTC. I used to think China and the US were the leading countries when it comes to mining, but suddenly you see a country coming from nowhere being a leader. Things can change!

[kiklo]

I hadn't seen that coming. A quarter of the world's mining is in Georgia. Is there cheap electricity there? Does anyone know any reason to explain why there are so many miners in that small country?

It makes me confident in BTC. I used to think China and the US were the leading countries when it comes to mining, but suddenly you see a country coming from nowhere being a leader.
Things can change!

Hmm,

Don't Bet on it unless you just want to lose.  
China has held over 51% (usually~ 68% ) for over a year and ½ .
Signs are their % will be increasing in the coming year not decreasing.

 
 

[franky1]

Signs are their % will be increasing in the coming year not decreasing.

your continued rhetoric that china's "their" suggests one entity, but is fail beyond belief

separate pools have separate asic locations, with separate stratums, separate power stations and separate managers in separate locations.

the hashrate is not "combined".

if the chinese government were to cut off the internet to an asic farm warehouse. a pool manager can cellphone text message(or cellphone 4/5G api request) a hash with a difficulty to the asic farm..
when a solution is found the asic farm texts(or cellphone 4/5G api pushes) back a solution to the pool stratum.
yes pools have many stratums around the world.

if the chinese government were to cut electric to an asic farm warehouse. a pool manager simply turn on their generator temporarily while the employee's physically move rigs to a new physical location.. yes that farm isnt productive for hours. but the other 20+pools are happy because their 'luck' has temporarily improved, gaining income because they are solving more blocks due to less competition.
within 48 hours the electric losing farm would be back online

if the chinese government were to outlaw mining. then within 48 hours everything moves to thailand or mongolia, or other neighbouring countries (and yes pools already have property and pool stratums and guys managing pools outside china.. even if the classification you call the pools are 'chinese', they are not actually all chinese)