Photos: Life inside of China’s massive and remote bitcoin mines

[Hydrogen]

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

A bitcoin “mine” with a blue tin roof sits next to a hydroelectric power plant in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province. (Liu Xingzhe/ChinaFile/EPA)


Packing materials for mining machines pile up beside the water-cooling system at a Bitcoin mine in Sichuan province. (Liu Xingzhe/ChinaFile/EPA)


Employees at a bitcoin mine in Sichuan. (Liu Xingzhe/ChinaFile/EPA)

***More at source

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.

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[OmegaStarScream]

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)

[Pearls Before Swine]

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.

[gentlemand]

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)

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.

[wxa7115]

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)

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.

[CuriousInvestor]

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

[gentlemand]

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.

[itsallpc]

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)

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.

[NeuroticFish]

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)

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.

[bitcoinvestor]

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.

[Bitsbytes]

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

[mriansa]

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

[Ayers]

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)

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

[Meuh6879]

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

[krishnapramod]

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

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.

[aesma]

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.

[Kprawn]

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 } 

[Hydrogen]

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.

[HanSchultz]

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.

[xderek]

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.