Authority Placed Chinese BTC Mines In US Under Scrutiny
In a recent report, the United States of America has reportedly deemed some bitcoin mines in its territory as a national security threat, claiming those mines that allegedly belonged to the Chinese Communist Party expose important US infrastructures to security threats and hence set to scrutinize the mines.
According to the report from the New York Times, the Chinese BTC mines located in America have caused panic as authorities deemed it a critical threat to national security. Reports revealed that one of the mining operations is situated in close proximity to the Air Force nuclear missile station at Wyoming and another close to the Pentagon’s Microsoft data center.
NYT’s report revealed that the Microsoft team had previously written a letter to warn the American government committee that the strategic locations of the mines could enable the Chinese to launch a full-spectrum intelligence collection mission. Also, an undisclosed US agency informed the NYT that the BTC mining facility in Wyoming has been under scrutiny for a while, and it is taking necessary steps to reduce any possible threat.
US Links Some BTC Mines With Chinese.
Bit Origin, a bitcoin mining firm associated with Cheyenne mine, informed the NYT that the US federal committee had contacted it with queries concerning the matter, which it responded to. The president of Bit Origin, Li Jiaming, claimed that they selected the firm’s location after legally reaching an agreement with the local utility firm for constant power supply and not because of the Missile base or Microsoft data center proximity.
The report revealed that most Bitcoin mines were established in 2021 when the Chinese authority banned mining activities in its territory. In addition, many of these mines allegedly have connections with China’s Communist Party, operating under the disguise of shell companies, according to the New York Times.
Although the Cheyenne site was not among the concerned mines, however, reports showed that another mining site, YZY Capital Holdings, owns a plot very close to the Microsoft data center.
Some US States Allow credit with your card
The mine is reportedly owned and operated by Yuan Qian, a business mogul and Chinese Communist Party member. The NYT pointed out in its report that there is at least a Bitcoin mining site in about 12 states of the country, which is owned and controlled by the Chinese. These states include Oklahoma, Wyoming, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, and Ohio.
Currently, there is an active legislation restriction on Chinese owning land in the US states due to security concerns. However, Texas seemed to be a hotspot for huge mining sites for BTC, which are linked with Chinese, despite the restriction. In July 2021, Governor Greg Abbot signed an Act titled ‘The Lone Star Infrastructure Protection,’ which prevents businesses that are owned by foreign rivals from having access to significant infrastructure.
Despite these laws and bans being effective, Chinese-based Bitcoin mining activities continue to boom and grow as rewarded by incentives from lucrative states.
BTC Mining Grows In US Despite Ban
Brian Harrell, an assistant secretary at the Homeland Security Department, claimed that if the mines work in concert, it can stress out the grid, which can wreak havoc. Also, the Vice President of NERC, Howard Gugel, pointed out that the BTC mines operate in a gray matter
Recently, the Director of National Intelligence issued a public notice that if the US plunges into a major conflict, the critical infrastructure of the US homeland operations would suffer significant cyber operations from the mines owned by Chinese in the region. Most of these Chinese-tied mining sites have mining machines manufactured by Bitmain, a prominent Chinese manufacturer.
Although Bitmain seemed independent of Chinese authorities, the reports from NYT revealed that some of the bitcoin mining infrastructure imports into the US from China were executed in the name of the Hainan Bitmain response. Since China implemented its crypto ban, Bitmain has reportedly imported a huge number of machines than they have in the 5 years combined.
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