According to Bitcoin Magazine, major internet service providers in China, such as Baidu and Weibo are censoring keywords that relate to bitcoin exchanges. At the time this article was written, both Google-like Baidu (and Twitter-like Weibo) are omitting search results. This effectively censors specific keywords related to bitcoin exchanges. While personal profiles of Chinese cryptocurrency experts, such as Changpeng Zhao, Binance founder, are still available on Weibo. However, both services show zero search results for bitcoin exchanges Binance OKEx and Huobi.
China’s State Council
It stated that the government would “crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading behavior, and resolutely prohibit the transfer of individual risk to the society.” For example, when you search for Binance on Weibo, a message appears saying, “According to relevant laws regulations and policies, the results of your search for ‘binance” are not displayed.” Baidu’s search for OKEx returns “Baidu found no related results for you.” Sorry, but we couldn’t find any pages that were related to OKEx.
While Weibo allows you to search for “binance”, it does not display the search results. Source: Weibo screenshot. Bitcoin Magazine has confirmed that the pattern can be repeated when searching for Binance and OKEx on both platforms.
Miners
Bitcoin Miners Ordered Going Offline. China’s State Council statement last month calling for a crackdown in bitcoin mining and trading is also a threat to some the most important bitcoin mining facilities in the world.
According to The Block, a notice was sent to one of the major economic development zones in the Xinjiang Province in China requesting that all bitcoin mining operations be stopped immediately.
According to the report, “The Reform and Development Commission of the Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture (Xinjiang) issued a notice to its subordinate government officials at the Zhundong Economic Technological Development Park on Wednesday.” “Accordingly to the notice,… officials in Zhundong Economic Technological Development Park were instructed to close down all crypto mining activities they administer by 2:00 PM China time on Wednesday.”
It is home to some of the largest bitcoin mining facilities in China, all powered by fossil fuels. It also houses various coal production industries, such as industrial factories and coal-based energy plants.
This instruction comes after Canaan, a bitcoin mining rig manufacturer, made recent comments against China’s regulatory crackdown. Representatives of the company claimed that the sector reduces energy waste, creates jobs, and nourishes local economies — apparently to no avail.
How will Bitcoin respond?
Although it is difficult to determine how much Bitcoin’s hash rate is fed by Changji Prefecture fossil fuel power plants at the moment, Zhundong has undeniably been a bitcoin mining center.
The shutdown of all bitcoin mining operations at the park could have a negative impact on the Bitcoin network’s hash rate. Glassnode data shows that the current network hash rate is at 155 exahashes per seconds. This is nearly half the amount it was one year ago.
It is difficult to predict the exact impact on Bitcoin’s hash rate. The network’s hashrate may see a short-term drop as miners move out of Xinjiang. China’s recent crackdown on bitcoin mining and related financial institution may encourage miners to leave the country altogether, a trend that has already begun to develop.
Conclusion
The Bitcoin hash rate will recover as miners move, even though it may be affected in the short-term. A decrease in the hash rate does no harm to the network’s security. This is explained by Nic Carter from Coin Metrics. He also commented on China’s mining bans. Carter also pointed out that by removing bitcoin mining from China, Bitcoin’s carbon emissions will be reduced as miners move to greener power stations abroad.