Bitcoin miners washed away from China by floods

A mining farm from the Chinese province of Sichuan has been washed away by heavy rain and floods. This naturally has the consequence that the miners have suffered heavy losses.

Communication via Pooling

There are a few very large mining companies in the world. With regard to hashrate, Poolin is the fourth largest, according to TheBlockCrypto. Molly Zhang, a manager of the official Telegram channel of Poolin, said that the building and the miners in the building are not from Poolin itself, but that some of its customers used Poolin hosting services.

The company tweeted two videos of the flood and the havoc left behind. You also see staff digging in the mud to save mining machines.

2/2 clip of personnel digging out miners from the mud: pic.twitter.com/QebXEqBjrN

– Poolin (@officialpoolin) August 21, 2019

Earlier today, Red Li, co-founder of the Chinese crypto outlet 8btc, tweeted that some mining facilities were wiped out by flooding in Sichuan yesterday. The mining companies have suffered a lot of damage, but he also adds that the situation is not as bad as last year.

Some mining facilities were wiped out by flood in Sichuan yesterday. pic.twitter.com/lZ12tapVga

– Red Li (@redtheminer) August 21, 2019

8btc also reports that the owners of the miners must bear the losses themselves, because insurance policies do not cover this. It is still unclear how many miners are involved. It is clear, however, that at least one owner has already suffered damage for more than 1 million yuan. That is approximately 128,000 euros.

Cheap and clean energy

Chinese miners are mainly in a handful of provinces: eighty percent are in Sichuan, the rest is divided between Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Xinjiang and Heilongjiang.

There is a reason why there are so many miners in Sichuan province. This place has low electricity costs (especially during the rainy season), fast internet, and low temperatures, so there is no need to invest in cooling. The low electricity costs is because renewable energy in these regions has an overproduction of thirty percent.

This cheap energy also has a downside: there is a proliferation of illegal miners, they work without a permit or official approval from the local government. The authorities have launched an investigation into illegal mine activities in the region.