Sichuan flooding causes hash rate drop for top BTC mining pools
China’s southwestern Sichuan province, which accounts for 9.66% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate and is the second most miner-heavy region in the country, has suffered from heavy rainstorms over the past weeks. The continuous rainstorms led to electricity outages, telecommunications issues and internet blackouts in the province.
Bitcoin mining pools in Sichuan largely paused operations due to the heavy rainstorms. Statistics from BTC.com revealed that top mining pools, such as Poolin, F2 Pool and Ant Pool, suffered 15%-21% drops in daily hash rate on Aug. 18. Lubian.com is the only top-10 Bitcoin mining pool that has not been affected by the rainstorm.
Key takeaways
China is home to the majority of Bitcoin’s hash rate, hosting 65.08% of the average monthly share. The affected mining pools — Poolin, BTC.com, F2 pool and Antpool — combine for over 50% of BTC’s total mining power.
China-based Bitcoin mining pool Lubian.com is shifting part of its mining operation to Iran. As a result, the rainstorm in Sichuan has had minimal impact on Lubian.com’s operation.
Hong Kong’s first police investigation of Bitcoin ATM fraud
Hong Kong police have arrested three men, aged 26 to 55, for allegedly cheating Bitcoin ATMs out of $30,000.
According to Wilson Tam Wai-shun, superintendent of the cybersecurity and technology crime bureau of Hong Kong, the culprits have withdrawn a total of 226,000 HKD in cash from six Bitcoin ATMs in 11 transactions. The transactions were first detected by two crypto exchanges, which suspected that the culprits had withdrawn cash without official authorizations.
Key takeaways
This is the first Bitcoin ATM fraud case in Hong Kong and reflects that there are security loopholes in cash withdrawals using such machines in the special administrative region.
BTC is not a legal tender in Hong Kong. The region’s monetary authority treats the market-leading cryptocurrency as a virtual commodity and has, thus far, not specified any specific enforcement measures on Bitcoin-related fraud cases.
China Banking Association pushing blockchain adoption in consumer finance
The China Banking Association recently published its “China Consumer Finance Corporation Development Report,” in which the CBA acknowledged the importance of blockchain technology in optimizing workflows in consumer finance.
The handling of legal disputes over bad debts is one of the key areas identified as potentially benefiting from blockchain solutions, specifically when it comes to saving on printing cost. This is because consumer-lending operations and legal-dispute documents for bad debts can be stored and easily accessed on a blockchain.
Key takeaways
The recent hiring spree among China’s debt collectors and the rising delinquency rate for consumer debts are alarming signs for the country’s consumer finance industry.
The CBA has recognized these pain points in the industry and urged companies to refine their business models by leveraging blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and 5G.
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