Government inspections in China may be behind the decline in Bitcoin's hashrate

Source: CritpoTendencia Original Title: Government Inspections in China Might Be Behind Bitcoin Hashrate Decline Original Link: A sharp contraction in the computational power, or hashrate, of the Bitcoin blockchain drew the crypto community’s attention this Monday. According to various reports, the recent decline in the network may be due to the shutdown of BTC mining operations in certain regions.

Some industry analysts suggest that local authorities may have initiated inspections in areas with intensive mining activity. As a result of these actions, nearly half a million mining devices, with an estimated energy consumption of about 2 GW, may have been disconnected. It should be clarified that, so far, this information cannot be independently verified due to the lack of official data or direct confirmations.

According to some specialized portals, close sources indicated that these inspections might have been ordered. The figure of 500,000 disconnected devices was mentioned by Kevin Zhang, director of Asia Nakamoto Holdings, via his X account.

Meanwhile, the website hashrateindex.com shows that since December 12, Bitcoin’s hashrate has decreased from a maximum close to 1.12 ZH/s to the current 1.05 ZH/s, representing a drop of approximately 72 EH/s. In the last three months, the network has recorded similar declines in its computing power.

Do the figures match the Bitcoin hashrate decline?

According to Zhang, the 500,000 allegedly disconnected ASICs would represent an energy consumption of around 2 GW. By applying average efficiency and consumption calculations for these devices, it can be estimated that 2 GW of energy equals approximately 66.7 EH/s, close to the 72 EH/s decrease observed in recent data.

Mining equipment efficiency is measured in joules per terahash (J/TH). The most advanced models currently available operate around 30 J/TH, which is equivalent to 30 W/TH. A disconnection of 2 GW implies a reduction of about 2 billion watts in energy consumption.

Assuming the affected farms used state-of-the-art equipment, it can be estimated that for every 30 watts, 1 TH/s is produced. This implies that the hashrate loss associated with 2 GW would be about 66.7 EH/s, or 66.7 million TH/s. Considering the main ASIC models on the market, a reduction of this size would be consistent with disconnecting between 400,000 and 550,000 devices.

From a technical standpoint, the calculations support the hypothesis that an intervention in the region could be related to the current decline in Bitcoin’s hashrate. However, as already indicated, there is no official confirmation to definitively attribute this situation to the mentioned inspections.

The region is one of the global centers of digital mining

If the report of a mining blackout is confirmed, it would reveal that the region continues to be one of the global hubs for BTC mining, despite the formal ban on such activity imposed by authorities in 2021.

Recent estimates suggest that the region accounts for about 14% of Bitcoin’s total computational power, making it the third-largest mining hub globally. In this ranking, it is only surpassed by Russia, with approximately 15%, and the United States, which leads with about 37%.