China tracks down illicit cryptocurrency miners, raids 20 government offices: report

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China has reportedly brought together several government agencies to form a joint inspection unit tasked with finding anyone defying its ban on cryptocurrency mining.

Sina Finance reported on Tuesday on Baidu – the popular Chinese social networking site – that the Joint Inspection Unit raided 20 “state-owned units” associated with 36 public IP addresses connected to recent activity of ‘crypto mining.

According to the report, a mining operation in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, relied on the resources of a vocational and technical college to power 32 mining rigs that reportedly grossed 2.4 ETH out of around four. month.

Sina Finance claimed that the operation brought in “a temporary recruit” to the college about $ 675,283 (4.3 million yuan). Still, the math doesn’t quite check there, even though that 2.4 ETH was per platform given Ethereum’s current price of around $ 3,777.

Still, part of the appeal of using college resources to power these platforms is the lack of operating costs, which means any ETH mined was pure profit. This is part of the reason why the Joint Inspection Unit looked for illegal operations like this one.

China has offered a few other reasons why it is tackling cryptocurrency mining as well. Perhaps most important is the tried and true “because I said so” that parents and authoritarian regimes can fall back on whenever their motives are called into question.

But the most often cited reason why China has banned cryptocurrency mining is the practice’s environmental impact. The country wants to reduce its carbon emissions, and energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining operations make it difficult to meet these goals.

Sina Finance echoed these arguments in its report: “Virtual currency mining and speculation violate the new concept of development, affect peak carbon neutralization and disrupt the normal economic and financial order. “

China has recently found allies in this fight. Swedish regulators said in November that the country would not be able to meet the targets set by the Paris Agreement if crypto miners were allowed to continue operating in the country.

India has also considered banning cryptocurrency, and it would also take a page out of China’s book by simultaneously working on its own central bank digital currency. (Which, in the case of China, has already been used in over 70 million transactions.)

Sweden and India simply offered to ban cryptocurrencies, when China in fact did. Moreover, this is not even the first time that he has gone on a hunt for illicit minors – similar operations were undertaken in September and October.

Sina Finance reported that the Zhejiang branch of the National Internet Emergency Center had in fact “detected that 4,699 IP addresses in Zhejiang had ‘mining’ behavior, of which 183 IP addresses involved 78 state-owned units,” from July.

Don’t be surprised if similar reports are published in the coming months. China has made it clear its intention to play – and ultimately end – this cat-and-mouse game with illegal cryptocurrency miners. It’s only a matter of time before the mice decide to move.

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