8btc went for a field trip to China’s Sichuan province, which is home to some of the largest crypto mining operations in the world. 8btc launched a picture & text live broadcast to discover the mining empire hidden in the mountains.

Sichuan is rich in rivers and waters. In the eyes of ordinary people, it is a scourge, while in the eyes of crypto miners, it is wealth.

Crypto mining farm, banknote printing machine in the mountains

The mining farm we went to belongs to BTC.top, whose owner is Jiang Zhuoer. The investment cost of the mining farm is nearly 100 million Chinese yuan with a total capacity of about 1600000 T. It can produce about 13 bitcoins every day.

It is close to a dam, consuming the electricity from the hydropower station. Part of the power is supplied to the mining farm after transformation.

There are seven rows of machine rooms in this mining farm. Standing next to the machine room, the buzzing sound of the mining machinery is a bit noisy.

Inside the machine rooms

As the mining machine is very delicate, high temperature and low temperature will affect the stability of operation and service life.

On the left is the cold air area. The negative pressure fan of the whole wall blows the air into the room. The hot air immediately turns into cool air after passing the water curtain device. The thermometer shows that it is only about 20 ° here. On the other side is a hot air zone, like an oven. That wall is also a meter square fan that draws air out to the outside.

“The farm has a load of 120000 kwh, which means that it can consume 120000 kwh of electricity in an hour. Well, during a wet season, the mining farm will have to pay tens of millions of electricity bills. Because of this, the farm can bring considerable tax revenue, which is a pretty penny for mountain towns.”

Said Wang Chengshun, the operation and maintenance personnel of the farm, the farm is equipped with an operation and maintenance personnel for every 2000 mining machines to ensure the normal operation of the mining machines.

In fact, for many staff in the farm, they do not necessarily know or recognize bitcoin, mining is a very pure and simple business in their eyes. But it doesn’t hinder these workers in the mountains conscientiously and carefully maintaining the security of Bitcoin network.

Sichuan, the heart of bitcoin network

The second day, we arrived at “Blockchain Data Center Project of Hydropower Consumption Park”. It has an investment of 180 million Chinese yuan with 15 planned rooms. It is expected to achieve a load of 300000 kWh. In other words, it should be the largest mine in Sichuan.

The feature of the “Hydropower Consumption Park” is not lies in its large scale, but the compliance of electricity use. Compliance, which is very good for the farm and even for China’s mining industry as a whole. Since 2020, the policy of ‘hydropower consumption park’ has been gradually implemented in Ya’an, Garze and Leshan.

After the introduction of the policy, many mining farm owners began to build new farms for applying to become “Hydropower Consumption Park”. It is estimated that by the end of this year, the total load of the park may be close to 1 million kWh, and the scale may increase in the rainy season next year. That is to say, the current mainstream direct-power-supply is gradually replaced by the compliant power supply of consumption park.

However, it is said that after the rainy season, even the mining machines in the “Hydropower Consumption Park” may be relocated to thermal-powered farms in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. Crypto mining machines, like migratory birds, travel twice a year.