Chinese Bitcoin mining companies operating in the United States are causing concern, we tell you!
Specifically, the company said in its report: “ Microsoft has no direct indications of malicious activities by this entity. However, pending similar discoveries, we advocate that the computing strength of an industrial-scale crypto mining operation, coupled with the presence of an unidentified number of Chinese citizens in direct proximity to the Microsoft Data Center and one of the three US strategic missile bases, presents significant threat vectors.
Concern over Chinese Bitcoin miners in the United States
In fact, in August 2022 the Microsoft team sounded the alarm, reporting the site in Wyoming to the United States Foreign Investment Committee.
As a result, US government officials told The New York Times that they had been following the Wyoming operation for months. Therefore, they had taken steps to slow down possible intelligence gathering, but he would not go into further detail. Meanwhile, the mining company said it responded to queries from the government’s Investment Committee.
By the way, aside from concerns over intelligence gathering, mines, which are large Warehouses or boxes filled with specialized computers, positioned enormous stress on energy grids.
In this regard, Brian Harrell, former undersecretary of infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration, said: ” Operations could place enormous stress on the network if mines worked together to wreak havoc .”
Bitcoin Mines: Energy Consumption
Regarding this fact, in several states, including Arkansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming, the presence of Bitcoin mines operated or owned by Chinese companies has been identified.
According to the NYT report, these mines consume as much energy as 1.5 million homes combined. To give an idea of its energy impact, it is estimated that the Cheyenne, Wyoming mine alone requires the same amount of electricity needed to power 55,000 homes when at full capacity.
In addition, most of these miners are equipped with computers manufactured by the Chinese company Bitmain. These operations have raised fears over their enormous energy consumption and possible cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.
I close with this quote from Natalie Brunell: “ Bitcoin is the most financially inclusive technology ever invented.
The US Government is not a Bitcoin hodler
Owning a huge amount of Bitcoin does not make the US government a hodler, at least theoretically.
The United States government is one of the largest holders of cryptocurrency in the entire world. However, that entity has no interest in playing with the market to take advantage of its hoarded coins. That is one of the reasons why he cannot be considered a Bitcoin hodler.
Hodlers of the aforementioned cryptocurrency obviously have no intention of hoarding it for life, although that is the image they project. These aspire for the price of the pioneering digital currency to go to the moon in the long term to partially or totally liquidate its tokens.
Meanwhile, the US government has a bunch of coins in cold wallets and has no plans with them. It is worth mentioning that, even if you had plans to sell, the bureaucratic procedure is so cumbersome that it could take years. Considering that, it can be said that these currencies under US power are more a file for court cases than opportunities to take advantage of the market.
The United States owns Bitcoin, but it is not a hodler
As already said, the fact that the authorities of the North American country own a lot of Bitcoin does not make them a hodler. Unlike the big whales, this State does not care if the price of the currency goes down or up. After all, they did not invest anything in exchange for those tokens in their wallets, as in the case of El Salvador.
Furthermore, the fact that the United States does not need to play with the market should also not be overlooked. The reason is that they can simply print what they need by raising the debt ceiling. This way, they don’t need to rack their brains waiting for price rises and falls.
Authorities in the aforementioned country have recently increased their holdings to approximately 200,000 BTC, according to information gathered by the WSJ. This information indicates that said cryptocurrencies are currently in the hands of the Department of Justice, the IRS, and other government agencies.
It should be taken into consideration that the authorities have sold some coins in some auctions. However, sales are low and avoid causing turbulence in the market. As already said, the bureaucratic process to sell these coins is highly cumbersome. This helps prevent the country’s government from becoming a market player.
All this makes the differences between a Bitcoin hodler and a holder like the State notable. For the US government, these coins are considered evidence when a case is open. Once it passes, they remain as a kind of archive of those cases.
Most of the US government’s bitcoins were confiscated in high-profile criminal cases.
