Chinese Government Agency Wants to Eliminate Bitcoin Mining
By now, it is well-known in the cryptocurrency community that China is actively attempting to curb crypto-related activities. Now, recent reports indicate that the Chinese governmental agency for economic planning, has released a draft list containing industries that it wants to stop in the near future.
The list, which was first started in 2011, includes a wide variety of industries that the Chinese government wants to curb, due to their negative impact on the economy, lack of compliance with national regulations, resource wastage, pollution, or lack of safety. So far, over 450 different activities have been included on the list drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission.
This time, the list also includes cryptocurrency mining. Reports indicate that no additional information referring to how and when the industry will be shut down has been released. However, it is worth pointing out that the NDRG list is up for public consultation, therefore those who are interested in the industries being phased out, can issue comments on the draft until the 7th of May 2019.
Despite the recently published draft to shut down the national bitcoin mining market, the Chinese government has been involved in this effort for quite a while. Several regulatory frameworks have been updated in an attempt to curb the market. Because of this, several cryptocurrency mining companies, alongside mining hardware manufacturers, have moved outside the Chinese borders, in countries that have more lenient legislation.
The draft is mostly regarded as a method of shaping the future development of the Chinese industries. As such, it is not yet clear whether the updated proposal will have any immediate impact on the declining bitcoin mining industry in China. Regardless, estimates showcase that roughly 1 million crypto mining servers operate within the country. A recent decrease of electricity prices has encouraged mining farms to purchase even more mining machines.