As China is cracking down on crypto, it may soon become more accessible and more lucrative to mine bitcoin, the most popular crypto of all time.
One month ago, Beijing resorted to measures to stamp out bitcoin mining during concerns over the environmental impact, which already led to numerous miners flying the country to regions like North America.
China’s crackdown got more intense over the weekend, as authorities in the hydropower-rich Chinese province of Sichuan ordered crypto miners to cease operations.
Reports suggested that over 90% of China’s bitcoin mining capacity got closed. It is believed that between 65-75% of all global bitcoin mining happens in China.
Though the news is grim for miners in China, it may be favourable for others.
Current miner rewards are capped to 6.25 BTC. The amount of bitcoin rewarded to miners gets halved every four years due to the crypto’s limited supply of 21 million.
Being the first to mine a new block is often described as a “game of random chance,” according to Alyse Killeen, the founder and managing partner of bitcoin-focused venture firm Stillmark.
Over the past month or so, bitcoin’s hashrate decreased from 180.7 million terahashes per second to approximately 116.2 million as of Wednesday, Blochain.com data revealed.
Crypto experts believe that, as numerous miners from China shut down operations, other miners’ share of the network will spread, possibly making mining considerably more profitable.
Kevin Zhang, the vice president of the crypto mining firm Foundry, said in an interview with CNBC:
“As more hashrate falls off the network, the difficulty will adjust downwards, and the hashrate that remains active on the network will receive more for their proportional share of the mining rewards.”
