Life Inside of a Multi-Million Dollar Bitcoin Mine in China
Imagine if you lived life as a one of the four Bitcoin enthusiasts and miners in Northern China. Your government isn't a big fan of an unsanctioned global currency like Bitcoin seeping into the Chinese market but isn't standing its way right now. They reserve the right to shut you down at any time. Internet access is extremely limited to the proletariat, but the more money you have, the more you can get. You and your government see visions for your economic future, and they couldn't be more divergent. You hold your economic freedom in your hand or your servers. Your government holds you in....
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Eric Mu is chief marketing officer at HaoBTC, a bitcoin wallet service. Here he speaks about life at the company's bitcoin mine in the Tibetan mountains. Living three months in a place where you have to travel 10km to reach the closest store might be inconceivable for a modern city dweller. For me however, being face-to-face with nature, plus the chance to witness some sort of modern alchemy, holds irresistible appeal. When the chance came, I didn't hesitate. A four-hour flight and eight-hour drive later, long after I lost count of the tunnels and bridges I passed, I arrived in HaoBTC's....
The profile of the average bitcoin miner has changed dramatically over the course of the currency's short history. Once the pursuit of hobbyists with powerful CPUs (and later GPUs), mining is now a highly competitive business performed on an industrial scale. But what is life like inside one of these power guzzling giants? Blogger Bitsmith found out first-hand on a trip to a one of the world's biggest facilities at a mystery location in China. Check out the scenes he witnessed in the gallery below: As more mining firms pile in, bitcoin's network difficulty is soaring higher and higher.....
China's version of eBay, dubbed TaoBao, has made a statement today indicating they plan to ban sales of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and the any hardware used to mine them. The service cites recent developments in China's legal landscape surrounding bitcoin, and Taobao expresses its desire to remain in compliance with the rules set forth by the People's Republic of China. Banned sales items include: bitcoin, litecoin, quarkcoin, PPCoinm, namecoin, and just about any other digital currency you can think of. Of relation, any hardware and/or software used to mine bitcoin or other digital....
At the Inside Bitcoins conference in Las Vegas, the CEO of the world's largest bitcoin exchange, BTC China, dished out some impressive figures with regard to his exchange's growth. "Trading volume has risen from $5 million to $50 million," said head honcho Bobby Lee. Malcom CasSelle from Timeline Labs said "[BTC China is] transacting 150,000 BTC per day." On the topic of when the recent news that China was warning financial institutions from toying with bitcoin, CasSelle said that "BTC China as a business will not have problems with deposits and withdrawals", referring to the very banks....
A detailed exploration of a bitcoin mine in Dalian, a major city in the north-east of mainland China, has been published by VICE's technology title Motherboard. The facility is called the No. 1 Bitcoin Mine. It contains 3,000 miners and costs $80,000 a month for 1,250 kW of electricity to keep them running, according to the film. It's located in the Changcheng area, in the waterfront Lushunkou district. The mine appears to be cooled by huge industrial fans mounted on the walls of the building. According to Motherboard, a "persistent, deafening buzz" emanates from the fans in the hot summer....