There are growing concerns in the People’s Republic about the effect Bitcoin mining has on power consumption. Bitmain, which runs China’s two largest Bitcoin mining collectives, is relocating its headquarters to Singapore, according to the report..
Company co-founder Wu Jihan said that they already have mining operations in the US and Canada. The third largest, BTC.Top, is opening a factory in Canada, and the fourth biggest mining operation, ViaBTC, has facilities in Iceland and the US..
China has long been a haven for crypto mining due to its low cost of energy. Bitcoin mining uses a lot of energy; it has been estimated by Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index that the current estimated annual electricity consumption is 37.8 TWh..
It was also estimated that 3.5 million households in the US could be powered by Bitcoin mining, which equates to an annualized estimated global mining cost of $1.89 billion. According to the report, the problems do not end there as Bitcoin’s biggest problem is not just its massive energy consumption, but that the network is mostly fueled by coal-fired power plants in China, resulting in a large carbon footprint..
http://bitcoinist.com/chinas-bitcoin-miners-moving-avoid-clampdown/