Last October, the United States overtook China as the global leader in cryptocurrency mining for the first time. Due to China's increasingly strict control over the industry, its share of global bitcoin hashrate fell to zero from 75% in September 2019 But the latest report from the Cambridge University alternative financial center (CCAF) shows that China has recovered from September to January 2021 - currently 21.1%, second only to 37.8% in the United States
CCAF points out that China's rise is due to hidden mining operations. "Access to off grid power and geographically dispersed small-scale operations are one of the main means used by underground miners to hide their operations from the authorities and circumvent the ban," the organization said in a statement
These figures are a summary of geolocation data based on Cooperative pool reports. Since many miners in China may use foreign proxy services such as VPN to hide their location, China's share in the global bitcoin hashrate value may be higher than the report shows.
It seems that the temporary decline in China is the result of miners moving underground. "At this scale, it takes time to find existing or build new untraceable hosting facilities," CCAF said. It is likely that a non small number of Chinese miners have quickly adapted to the new environment and continue to operate secretly, while using foreign agency services to divert attention and censorship to hide their tracks. "
"With the implementation of the ban and the passage of time, underground miners seem to become more confident and seem satisfied with the protection provided by local agency services," the center added
In the global hashrate list, Kazakhstan ranks behind China, accounting for 13.22%, followed by Canada, accounting for 6.48%. In terms of American States, Georgia leads with a hashrate share of 30.8%, followed by Texas and Kentucky.