Recent floods in SW China’s Sichuan have caused a lot of damages to cryptocurrency mining operations in the area, though the damage has not been that serious so far like the situation last year, according to sources.

The heavy rainfalls in the region have lasted for days starting from August 18, which has led to massive floods and caused many casualties. Cryptocurrency mining farms concentrated there (Sichuan has been called a “Bitcoin mining capital” due to the high concentration of bitcoin mining operations in it) have also been heavily hit.

The cheap and abundant hydropower during the rainy season (usually lasting from April to October) in Sichuan has attracted numerous crypto mining machines moving there. Those mining farms which are located near rivers are particularly devastated for the rising water.

Images provided by Red Li show that many crypto mining machines are washed out and submerged. As the warranty policy does not cover such cases, miners have to bear these losses.

A local mining farm based in Sichuan, China was DEVASTATED by the recent heavy rainfall in the region, video attached 1/2 pic.twitter.com/CvdEAUeq3x

— Poolin (@officialpoolin) August 21, 2019

Video clip from crypto mining pool Poolin shows a mining farm is being destroyed by the raging flood there

“Water has risen to the second floor, all my clients’ mining machines are soaking in water. This is a natural disaster (we don’t want), have to say sorry to my clients.” A miner said in his WeChat moment.

Another source told 8btc that he was organizing a human effort to clear the dirt and river sand to find undamaged miners in his mining farm. But the road was now blocked, what they could do now is to pray that trucks could carry the undamaged mining machines away as soon as possible.

“As far as I know, three mining farms have been damaged, including mine. The flood knocked down two three-story shelves with more than 100 mining machines washed away in my mine, causing more than 1 million yuan losses.”

“As roads have been blocked by raging floods and landslides, it is difficult to check the scale of damage, all the few messages I know was sent from miners inside there. It’s lucky no one got hurt in my mine.”

A mining farm operator said that some mining machines could still work after washing off the dirt, and those not severely damaged could be repaired at a cost about 300-400 yuan per unit. He added that to avoid losses from such natural disasters, a compliant mining farm would choose places following geologists’ advice and be constructed of reinforced concrete on stilts, which could keep them unscathed in the floods. While illegal miners opt to build their mining operations near rivers some even directly on riverbed within some small hydropower stations, which would make them more vulnerable to floods.

Data from the Blockchain.com shows the bitcoin hashrate (~73 EH/s currently) has seen no obvious downturn despite the disaster in the “Bitcoin mining capital”. During the same time last year, the Sichuan floods have been associated by some analysts with a sharp drop (from 43 EH/s to 30 EH/s) in Bitcoin network hashrate as numerous mining machines were taken out by the floods.

As of press time, it remains unclear how many of these crypto mining equipment have been destroyed in the flooding. However, the heavy rainfalls show no signs of abating, it remains to be seen whether the bitcoin hashrate will be influenced if more bitcoin miners are wiped out.