A Visit to a Bitcoin Mining Farm in Sichuan, China Reveals Troubles Beyond Regulation

As many small and medium-sized mining data centers in Sichuan, Guizhou, and Inner Mongolia are closed for the sake of “environmental protection”, the “green” ones that remain operational usually avoid media exposure. After talking with dozens of data center owners, news.Bitcoin.com was granted the chance to visit a mining farm in Chengdu only to find that miners there are facing more pressing problems than regulation.

Bitcoiners Negotiated with Hydropower Stations to Set Up Mining Farms

Following a four-hour flight from Hangzhou to Chengdu and a two-hour drive from the airport to a small village, we finally arrived at a hydropower station.

Electric transmission lines are installed from the station to the blue-roofed mining factory. There are three mining data centers and each has 2,500 mining machines. The operations manager Chuan told us that the electricity price has increased from 0.3 yuan per kwh to 0.4 per kWh as Sichuan is in its dry season.

We asked how he found the place and negotiated with local officials and he replied that starting a mining site is an investment with low thresholds…