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China’s BSN Blockchain Ready For Global Expansion Despite ‘Challenges’

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China’s blockchain-based service network a.k.a BSN is eyeing its first major international expansion, according to a CNBC report. CEO Yifan revealed the firm’s plan to launch a project called BSN Spartan Network overseas sometime in August.

The Hong Kong-based firm boasts itself as a “one-stop-shop” for blockchain cloud applications. It aims to bridge different blockchains together to help businesses deploy the technology.

Even though Chinese President Xi Jinping has doubled down on Blockchain technology, elevating it to a national priority, it is strictly against any cryptocurrencies other than Digital Yuan.

Due to this, the Spartan Network will rely on half a dozen public blockchains that do not operate with cryptocurrencies. One of those will be a non-crypto version of the Ethereum blockchain when the project launches in August.

Yifan also confirmed that the Blockchain transactions fee will be paid in U.S. dollars rather than Ethereum’s related cryptocurrency called ether.

“The purpose of this is to drop the cost to use public chains to very minimal so that more traditional IT [information technology] systems and business systems can use public chains as part of their systems. That is why we are working with other major public chain protocols to convince them the mainstream is non-crypto public chains.”

More hurdles for BSN ahead

Being a blockchain firm and not dealing with cryptocurrencies will have its challenges. The CEO admitted that the initial years will be “difficult to push as most people in the blockchain industry only understand crypto.

Not only that, as it is backed by the Chinese government, foreign firms would likely be a bit hesitant to do business with the firm.

But Yifan begged to differ saying, “People will say BSN is from China, it is dangerous. Let me emphasize, BSN Spartan will be open source … we will not access anything from our end.”

“That is why when we a launch in August we will open-source immediately and we are working with a lot of western companies,” he added.

On the other hand, here is some good news for Bitcoiners.

China’s iron hold over Bitcoin miners from running operations in the country seems to be wavering. Data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index [CBECI] showed that activity has picked up again and the nation is now the second-largest Bitcoin miner, after the US.

China Regains the Title of the 2nd Top Bitcoin Mining Hub

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According to recent research, China failed to implement its cryptocurrency prohibition last year, and the country has since resurfaced as one of the world’s main Bitcoin (BTC) mining hubs.

China became the second-largest Bitcoin hash rate supplier in January 2022, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), months after local officials banned all crypto operations in the country.

According to data, Chinese bitcoin miners generated 21.1 percent of the entire global BTC mining hash rate distribution in early 2022, behind only the United States, which generated 37.8% of the total hash rate in January.

China once hailed the bitcoin mining industry

In 2019, China was the world’s largest Bitcoin mining country, accounting for more than 75% of worldwide BTC hash rate power. In July and August 2021, the hash rate decreased to 0% after a string of crypto mining farm closures around the country.

Despite the crypto ban in September 2021, the hash rate share climbed to 22.3 percent in that month and never went below 18 percent during the research period.

The new data, according to CBECI project leader Alexander Neumueller, is sufficient to prove that Bitcoin mining is still active in China.

Kazakhstan, the world’s third-largest BTC mining center, sees a modest reduction in hash rate share, according to the latest CBECI data. Kazakhstan’s contribution to the BTC hash rate fell from 18 percent in August to 13.2% in January.

Miners are currently mining up to 9% of the global BTC hash rate in unspecified places, according to CBECI statistics. With 6.5 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively, Canada and Russia are the next two largest mining centers.

Russia has dropped out of the top three nations in terms of BTC hash rate power, as well.

The most recent CBECI update provides more granular statistics on hashrate distribution in the state’s main Bitcoin mining market.

According to the figures, Georgia, Texas, and Kentucky have the greatest hash rate, accounting for 32 percent, 11.2 percent, and 10.9 percent, respectively. These three states collectively account for more than half of the overall hash rate in the US.

States like New York, California, North Carolina, and Washington, according to data, have major mining activity.

Latest Russian Sanctions Round by the US Goes for Bitcoin Mining Company

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The US Treasury Department stated on Wednesday that it had broadened its list of sanctions to include firms and persons who are suspected of assisting Russia in evading the impact of economic sanctions placed on the country.

Treasury sources said the agency is now focusing on Russian commercial bank Transkapitalbank and a network of more than 40 people, including tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev, who they say helped the Kremlin avoid a wave of economic sanctions.

The Biden administration also stated it is tightening down on enterprises that help Russia monetize its exports and other natural resources, such as Bitriver, that operate in the virtual currency mining sector.

US sanctions the first Russian Bitcoin mining company

Since the war on February 24, the United States has implemented multiple rounds of sanctions. Sanctions have been imposed on the country’s top banks and lenders, as well as cryptocurrency exchanges. “Having operated in the Russian Federation economy’s technology sector,” Bitriver was labeled.

Bitriver claims to be the world’s largest provider of environmentally-friendly cryptocurrency mining, having been created in 2017. It boasts a 100-megawatt renewable energy data center in Bratsk, Siberia, with 75,000 miners.

According to the Treasury Department, the company sold mining capacity to overseas clients, allowing Russia to “monetize its natural resources.” It went on to say:

“Russia has a comparative advantage in crypto mining due to energy resources and a cold climate. However, mining companies rely on imported computer equipment and fiat payments, which makes them vulnerable to sanctions.”

Anti-industry lawmakers in the United States have been increasing their rhetoric, believing that the country exploits crypto assets to dodge sanctions.

The Treasury Department defined crypto transactions to be “deceptive or organized transactions or deals” that might be exploited in sanctions evasion just days after the invasion in February.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) echoed this opinion this week, warning that nations such as Russia and Iran may utilize cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions.

However, economists and industry experts have slammed the idea that the country will turn to crypto to dodge sanctions.

Louisiana Announces a Bill to Ease the Regulations on Bitcoin Mining

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A measure to de-regulate Bitcoin mining in Louisiana has been proposed by a state representative, Mark Wright. The proposed bill follows a few of the current law’s rules.

The Bitcoin mining sector has a lot of promise, but it also has a lot of drawbacks. The anti-crypto group has emphasized the industry’s enormous energy consumption as well as the fact that mining is not ecologically beneficial.

As a result, the government of Louisiana controlled Bitcoin mining and established limitations to keep things under check. Mark Wright, a State Representative, has just presented a measure to eliminate rules from the state’s power zones.

Louisiana’s “Deregulated Industrial Power Zones Act”

The “Deregulated Industrial Power Zones Act” will apply to “deregulated industrial power zones,” “governing authority,” and “state properties,” among other things.

It will allow government officials to petition for a power zone on a portion of the property, but they must host a public meeting within a fortnight after the hearing. During the meeting, the authority will be required to submit a complete analysis of the power zone’s impact.

The bill also stipulates that the updated or proposed law would follow the prior law with the exception of one provision.

It will be imposed on consumers that consume electricity for “commercial” or “industrial” purposes within the power zone. The user who does not purchase “electricity to replace electrical service capacity that existed previous to the formation of the power zone” will also be exempt.

Despite the fact that the proposed bill aims to loosen the constraints imposed by current legislation, it will not allow a utility producer to recoup expenses. It will guarantee that it does not significantly impact “service supplied to other retail customers.”

The adverse effects of Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin mining operations utilize roughly a hundred and twenty terawatt-hours of electricity each year, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.

This is the total yearly home power usage in Sweden as a whole. According to Digiconomist, a single bitcoin transaction consumes the same energy as an ordinary American home in a month. It emits about a million times the amount of carbon dioxide as a single Visa transaction.

Does it make sense to devote such a massive quantity of power to a virtual currency at a time when the world badly needs to reduce carbon emissions? The response appears to be a resounding nay. Nonetheless, here we are.

Tesla, Block and Blockstream to build a 100% solar-powered Bitcoin Mining Rig

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Jack Dorsey’s Block, Digital asset infrastructure provider Blockstream, and Tesla unite together on a new venture to construct a solar- and battery-powered bitcoin mine in U.S’s second-largest state Texas. Speaking on the ambitious project, Adam Back, Blockstream co-founder, and CEO told that the mining facility is designed to be a 100% renewable energy bitcoin mining at scale.

“People like to debate about the different factors to do with bitcoin mining. We figured, let’s just prove it. Have an open dashboard so people can play along, maybe it can inform other players to participate,” Back said.

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Tesla, Block and Blockstream to build a 100% solar-powered Bitcoin Mining Rig 2

The mining facility will be powered by Tesla’s 3.8 megawatts solar PV array and 12 megawatt-hours Megapack. In addition to that, Blockstream would release a publicly accessible dashboard that will show real-time metrics of the project’s performance, including power output and total bitcoin mined.

The blockchain tech firm said the future version of the dashboard will include solar and storage performance data points. “This is a step to proving our thesis that bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission power infrastructure and build economic growth for the future,” Back said.

Blockstream aims to diversify crypto energy sources

The western part of Texas has abundant sources of renewable energy in the United States when combined with energy buyers like Bitcoin miners, can create financial opportunities. “Miners provide demand to these semi-stranded assets and make renewables in Texas economically viable,” according to Castle Island Venture’s Nick Carter.

Besides, Back said the off-grid mine is expected to be completed by the end of the year. If the project turns profitable in its pilot stage, the exec said, the firms would also bring wind power to the mix and scale the entire project.

“You’re making a sort of calculation of the optimal economic mix between solar and battery,” Back said. “There are 3.8 megawatts of solar and one megawatt of mining, so you can see you have to overprovision, because the peak solar input varies during the day and, of course, it’s not there at night.”

Blockstream said its ultimate goal is to strengthen the bitcoin network by diversifying the cryptocurrency’s energy sources.

Marathon Digital: HODL the coin

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Despite a 45-day delay in delivering its mining rigs through the first quarter, Marathon Digital (MARA), one of the biggest publicly traded bitcoin miners, is still on schedule to fulfill its hashrate forecast of 23.3 exahash per second (EH/s) by early 2023, the company stated in a statement Monday.

Marathon Digital’s mining fleet has produced 1,258.6 bitcoin so far this year, a 556 percent increase over the same period last year. The following is a breakdown of the Company’s bitcoin production by month:

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The Company last sold BTC on October 21, 2020, and has been “hodling” or hoarding all BTC created since then. As a result, Marathon now owns 9,373.6 BTC, including the 4,813 BTC it purchased in January 2021 at an average price of $31,168 per BTC. On April 1, 2022, the fair market value of one BTC was roughly $45,539, meaning that Marathon’s existing BTC holdings are worth around $427.7 million.

BTC production rises by 15% at Marathon Digital

Marathon’s CEO, Fred Thiel, stated that in the first quarter of 2022, the firm raised its bitcoin output by 15% over the previous quarter, producing a total of 1,259 bitcoins, despite the fact that the worldwide hash rate grew by around 17%. If the global hash rate had remained constant from the end of Q4 2021 to the end of Q4 2022, Marathon digital’s BTC production would have climbed 17 percent to 1,282 BTC. The company continues to hold, or HODL, all of its BTC, resulting in a total of 9,374 bitcoin, cementing our position as one of the greatest bitcoin holders among publicly traded companies.

The company blamed the delay on a longer-than-expected approval process for the power it needed to operate. Marathon CEO Fred Thiel, emphasizing that this process necessitated permits, which caused the deployment to be delayed said,

“Typically, power flows from power stations into the grid. However, to ensure we have a consistent power supply when the renewable sources are operating intermittently, we also needed power to flow from the grid back into the power station at scale.”

Marathon’s stock has plummeted 13% this year, while bitcoin has dropped 2.6 percent and mining peers Riot Blockchain (RIOT) and Core Scientific (CORZ) have plunged 9% and 16%, respectively. Marathon also acknowledged that, as Bloomberg previously reported, it is open to selling the company for the right price.

Bitcoin mining utilizing stranded wells; be amazed

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Bengal Energy, a Canadian oil and gas business, is dabbling in Bitcoin (BTC) mining as a way to tap into the untapped energy from its gas wells in the Australian outback.

Bengal Energy plans to conduct a pilot program where nearly 70 Bitcoin mining rigs will be set up within a mobile building — known in the local mining industry as a “donga” — that will be assembled near a series of previously out-of-service gas wells in the Cooper Basin, according to a report from The Australian.

Bengal Energy bought the gas wells from its regional oil and gas extraction counterparts, Santos Energy and Bridgeport Energy, as per Bengal Energy’s chief operating officer Kai Eberspaecher. He further added,

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“We were basically looking at six months of having wells ready but without an outlet. We were dealing with stranded assets.”

The freshly acquired gas wells, according to Eberspacher, provided an unusual dilemma for the energy firm because they were “stranded wells.” While the corporation may technically generate electricity from the gas on-site, the existing distribution pipelines are just too far away to reach.

The development of a pipeline to serve Bengal’s remote gas wells is currently underway. COVID-19-related supply chain concerns, on the other hand, have compounded the development delays.

The answer was discovered to be portable Bitcoin mining machines in Dongas. A trial donga will be equipped with 66 mining machines capable of generating around 0.005 BTC per day, or about $235.

However, Bengal Energy is apparently hoping to double its Bitcoin mining output by a ratio of 10 to 20 if the trial is successful, suggesting total income may range from $2000 to $5000 per day.

Portable Bitcoin mining operations

Bengal Energy joins a growing number of mining corporations, including ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, that are looking to use portable Bitcoin mining operations to unlock the full potential of normally lost or stranded energy.

btc elec

As a result of the highly publicized environmental criticisms of BTC mining, fossil fuel firms have become increasingly concerned with discovering innovative ways to prevent the hazardous effects of mining processes and, when possible, use any sustainable alternatives.

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the Bitcoin Mining Council predicted that the global industry would have a sustainable energy mix of 58.5 percent. Miners in Norway are even drying lumber with waste heat. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at $47,287.56 with a hike of 0.04% in the last 24 hours.

Here’s how the Bitcoin community will turn green

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Greenpeace and Ripple co-founder Christopher Larsen are launching a campaign named “Change the Code, Not the Climate” to encourage the Bitcoin community to choose a less energy-intensive method of verifying payments than the proof-of-work algorithm, or PoW, according to Bloomberg.

According to the story, numerous other climate activist organizations have joined this project in addition to Greenpeace. According to Larsen, the amount of power utilized by Bitcoin miners is currently equal to that consumed by Sweden, and in five years, it will be identical to the share of electricity consumed by Japan.

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Chris Larsen has also contributed $5 million to the campaign. As a model for Bitcoin, he and others leading this campaign point to Ethereum’s intentions to switch to the proof-of-stake algorithm.

The conversion from Ethereum to PoS, which has taken years and is scheduled to take place in the coming months, could reduce energy use by 99 percent. Larsen expressed his desire for BTC and ETH to prosper. Aside from XRP, he owns both.

Bitcoin miners to give up PoW

According to Bloomberg, the Environmental Working Group, Greenpeace, and a few smaller environmental activist groups would buy commercials in major media sources during April. They are also recruiting their army of members to convince BTC miners to abandon PoW mining.

The campaigners have already contacted important individuals and corporations in the BTC mining industry as a result of their efforts. The aforementioned campaign is being led by Michael Brune, a former executive director of the Sierra Club, in an attempt to persuade the BTC community to reform its verification process.

Brune believes that because many firms and high-net-worth individuals who care about the environment are investing in Bitcoin, a favorable outcome is possible and that they can urge investors to address this big issue.

Brune believes that many organizations that are currently working with Bitcoin, such as PayPal, its Venmo app, Goldman Sachs, and others, will be useful in the future. At the time of press, Bitcoin was priced at $47,269.97 with a daily drop of 0.58%.

Bitcoin mines probed over noise complaints; What next?

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The environmental impact of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) has been a hot topic of debate for over a decade now. BTC detractors have been accusing the world’s largest cryptocurrency of destroying the environment for years, from mining companies being driven out of nations to the environmental dangers of the Proof-of-Work [PoW] method. However, the spotlight seems to have diverted from environmental crises to noise complaints.

Earlier, the fierce debate over the consumption of energy of BTC mining did the rounds. It was estimated the amount of energy utilized for BTC was increasing, and it consumed as much energy annually as entire countries like Finland, Malaysia, or Sweden. Studies even exclaimed that the average BTC transaction required over 1,700 kWh of electricity each month, which is about twice the quantity used by the average U.S. home.

However, that issue seemed to be addressed by figuring out ways to transact Bitcoin (BTC) through lesser energy consumption. Exacerbating the problem, some bitcoin mining firms partnered with troubled fossil fuel power plants, allowing certain power plants to stay operational that would otherwise have been shut down, resulting in increased overall carbon emissions. Some providers had even immediately entered the BTC game.

Just as the energy consumption issue was being devoted to, a new one pops up. There seems to be an issue with the noise being transmitted because of the BTC mining.

Ruling states Bitcoin mine violates zoning laws; yet allowed for an appeal

In light of recent events, on 14 March 2022, a Bitcoin miner in Tennessee who had been in disagreement with locals and municipal officials over noise concerns lost a court battle. According to News Channel 11, a judge decided that Red Dog Technologies’ mining activity violated zoning laws. However, an appeal petition was approved.

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source: News Channel 11

As a consequence of the noise issues, Bitcoin had taken a hit. The Washington County Chancery Court determined the mine to violate zoning laws. Bitcoin mining operations, as per Chancellor John Rambo, will not be authorized to function in that area under normal circumstances. Allyson Wilkinson, the county attorney, said,

“The people in the Limestone area have been living with this unpermitted use … in their community for over 300 days, so we’re very grateful that this court was able to make itself available and put in the time and the thoughtful consideration to make the ruling based on Tennessee law.”

With new technology, there is always a period of adjustment for society, rules, and legal institutions to respond to new difficulties. Could this be an era of change for the crypto world? Only time will tell. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at $40,698.56 with a daily drop of 1.29%.

Intel’s ‘Bonanza Mine’ Bitcoin miner exhibits energy efficiency

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Intel has made the engineering parameters of their Bonanza Mine bitcoin miner tools public.

The world’s largest computer chip manufacturer has revealed specifics of a new mining chip that will be paired with a high-performance 3,600-watt miner with the purpose of increasing Bitcoin (BTC) mining efficiency.

The chip manufacturer filed a patent in November 2018 for “high-performance Bitcoin mining,” which claimed a 15 percent reduction in aggregate energy consumed. At the time, the company’s executives expressed optimism in contending against established companies such as Bitmain, MicroBT, and Nvidia:

“Intel has done design work around SHA 256 optimized ASICs for several years beginning with pathfinding work done in Intel Labs.”

During the  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) edition of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2022, a conference dedicated to the electronics and chip manufacturing industries, Intel unveiled their second-generation BTC mining rig. Bonanza Mine (BMZ2) is a low-voltage, energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC that can provide 40 terahashes per second (TH/s), according to the firm.

Intel’s current state of Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin mining is now done with specialized hardware known as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). According to the technical specs revealed during the conference, each Bonanza Mine (BMZ1) miner carries 300 BMZ1 chips. The “one-subscript” in the nomenclature denotes that the miner hardware is of the first generation.

These 300 BMZ1 together produce 3,600 watts (W) of power while generating 40 terahash per second (TH/s) of processing power. This latter standard falls short of the hash rate quoted by the market’s main miners.

Bitmain’s Antminer S19 and S19 Pro have hashing speeds of 95 to 110 TH/s, whereas MicroBT’s WhatsMiner M30S hashing speeds of up to 112 TH/s. Bitmain is even releasing a new liquid-cooled miner with a throughput of up to 198 TH/s, according to the company.

Despite the fact that the chip manufacturer’s solution lacks the hashing power of its competitors, the company claims that the BMZ1 is more energy efficient. Block and Argo are among the elevated customers who have already placed purchase orders.

However, it’s unclear whether the company will supply simply BMZ1 chips for customers to integrate into their mining rigs or whether the 3,600 W miners will be shipped to consumers.