Bitcoin (BTC) mining is making a strong comeback in China. Despite the ban decreed by Beijing last year, the country concentrates more than 21% of the network’s global hash rate, behind the United States (37.84%) and ahead of Kazakhstan (13.22%). Apparently, an underground industry continues to mine Bitcoin on Chinese soil while hiding from the authorities.

The University of Cambridge just published a new analysis on Bitcoin (BTC) mining worldwide. This updated information is valid from September 2021 until January 2022. China has re-established itself as a “major center” for the mining industry throughout this time.

According to the data, China accounts for 21.11 percent of the hash rate, or processing power, of the Bitcoin (BTC) network.
However, the Chinese government officially prohibited Bitcoin mining in May 2021, claiming environmental concerns.

Following that, the authorities went on the hunt for obstinate miners by turning off power in specific areas, most notably the Sichuan valley.
Last summer, 90 percent of the country’s farms came to a halt.
For a while, the University of Cambridge found no minors in China.

China has an underground mining industry.

The comeback of miners in China, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge, is due to “an underground industry.”
According to the research, the mining farms are likely to have continued to operate in Chinese territory with care.
The British scientists explain:

“Access to off-grid electricity sources and a geographical scattering of small-scale operators are among the main ways to circumvent the ban.” 

Miners most likely used “virtual private networks (VPNs) or other proxy services” to hide from authorities.
These gadgets enabled them to conceal their whereabouts.
This is why nations such as Germany and Ireland, which host a large number of VPN servers, have begun to rise in the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) statistics.

This index, which was launched in 2019, immediately established itself as one of the sector’s benchmarks.
The researchers depend heavily on location data provided by numerous pools to produce an estimate of the Bitcoin network’s energy consumption in real-time.
The researchers presume that a mining farm’s IP address is a trustworthy indicator and that the pooled sample is typical of the entire sector.

If a large number of bitcoin miners begin to conceal their location, the index’s relevance may be called into doubt.
The “brutality of the revival” of farms in China, according to researchers, is due to “methodological concessions.”
In particular, despite the constraints, all mining infrastructure had not left Chinese territory.
In practice, at least some Chinese miners are not mentioned in the index since their IP addresses might be hidden.
As a result, it is probable that other farms are still in operation on Chinese land.