66% Of Bitcoin’s Hash Rate Is Controlled By China, 54% Coming From A Single Province

China is one of the leading countries in technological innovations, and this leadership has seemingly extended to the Bitcoin miners. According to reports by Reuters and The Next Web’s Hard Fork, the miners in China are presently in control of about two-thirds (66%) of the processing power of the network, also known as the hash rate. Of that portion, about 54% is attributed to a single province.

In June, this power was 60% controlled by China, but the increase makes this hash rate the highest recorded for Bitcoin in the nearly two years that CoinShares has been tracking it. The head of research for the firm, Chris Bendiksen, states that these gains since the summertime could be due to the release of mining gear with new advancements.

As for the rest of the processing power, the digital asset firm explained,

“Out of the remaining 35% of [global] miners, we estimate that 31% of global [hash rate] production is evenly split between Washington, New York, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Siberian Federal District of Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Iran.”

CoinShares also examined the way that the miners around the world get the electricity needed for their crypto revenue, discovering that most of it comes from renewable energy. Based on the current trajectory, this revenue is expected to reach $5.4 billion in this year alone. Considering that there are many people who suggest that Bitcoin mining is bad for the environment with its high energy consumption, the fact that renewable energy covers 73% of what is used would poke some holes in that argument.

Concluding their research, the firm added,

“Overall, our findings reaffirm our view that Bitcoin mining is acting as a global electricity buyer of last resort and therefore tends to cluster around comparatively under-utilized renewables infrastructure. This could help turn loss-making renewables projects profitable and in time — as the industry matures and settles as permanent in the public eye — could act as a driver of new renewables developments in locations that were previously uneconomical.”

The hash rate of Bitcoin has risen exponentially through the last year, knocking over every all-time high record in its path. CoinShares believes that the hash rate will likely be distributed more evenly with the exporting of mining chips.