After China banned crypto mining in the country, local Bitcoin miners still generate up to 20% of the total hashrate of the crypto network, CNBC has reported citing experts.
One of the miners has told the publication how local industry players work underground. This particular miner has been mining since 2015 and owns a total of 6,000 devices.
After the start of the crackdown by the Chinese authorities, he distributed his equipment among numerous facilities so as not to emit too much power consumption into the grid.
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He installed 1,000 units throughout the country. This equipment is fed from the public grid. 5,000 miners are directly connected to two small hydropower plants in Sichuan province.
According to Chinese cybersecurity company Qihoo 360, 109,000 IP addresses were used daily for mining in November. Most of the activity takes place in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces.
Industry players who previously worked in China and are familiar with the situation have confirmed to CNBC that miners are still operating in the country.
The crackdown has mainly affected large companies, while smaller companies were unable to relocate for various reasons. Many closed the facilities for several weeks, but then put them back into operation taking precautions not to be detected by the authorities.