Who will challenge China for Mining Superpower?
The flooding in China again affected the bitcoin rate: in the Sichuan province, showers do not stop; rivers are overflowing and the news reports about the destruction of more than 1200 buildings. The mining pools located there control over 50% of the computing power of bitcoin; Poolin, F2Pool, BTC.com, and Antpool are among them.
It is said that China will lose its leadership in Bitcoin mining. Jameson Lopp (CTO of Casa) talked about it recently. But who will take the place of the leader? Time to meet the contenders!
Georgia
This small country is the third largest mining country in the world after China and Venezuela. Georgia attracts cryptocurrency miners by cheap electricity: after the collapse of the USSR, 20 water-power plants remained in the country. Georgia was intended to be the “energy hub” of the Caucasus, but instead, it has become a mining empire.
Kazakhstan
Mining farms have already attracted more than $ 200 million to Kazakhstan, and this is not the end. According to official data, there are 14 mining farms in the country: in fact, the mining of cryptocurrency there is legalized, and miners own all the profit. The country's government encourages mining, so the role of Kazakhstan in the global mining of bitcoin and altcoins will grow.
Iceland
Countries with cold climates have great potential for mining, because local farms need less cooling. In Iceland in 2018, miners consumed more energy than civilians and heavily loaded the grid. This set a certain ceiling for mining development. But now farms are developing environmentally friendly energy (from hydro, wind and geothermal sources), and therefore mining is booming again.
Abkhazia
Since December 2018, mining in Abkhazia has been banned, and illegal farms have been eliminated. The leadership of the republic is convinced that miners are overloading power grids and damaging infrastructure. However, from January to July 2020, Abkhazia has been importing mining equipment worth 84 million rubles. This suggests that the country has great potential in the cryptocurrency field, and if the law changes, Abkhazia will become a strong competitor for a place at the top.
Russia
There are already several large mining centers in Russia, including Binance server in the BitRiver data center. Binance Pool and BitRiver openly declare that they are ready to create infrastructure for mining in Russia and the CIS. There are no obstacles to this at the legislative level.
Canada
This cold climate country is strongly developing mining/ But without damage for the environment. In the Quebec province, data centers of miners heat greenhouses with strawberries, and it’s a way to reduce the cost of energy.
If the countries of Europe, America, and Central Asia successfully develop mining, this will make Bitcoin truly decentralized. And its price will not fluctuate noticeably from political and environmental developments in China.