Beijing starts inquiry into data centre firms’ involvement in power-sapping cryptocurrency mining operations
- Data centre firms, including China’s three main telecoms network operators, have been put on notice about their participation in cryptocurrency mining
- The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology wants to know the amount of power consumed by such mining operations
The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology released on Tuesday an “emergency notice”, which was seen and confirmed by the South China Morning Post, asking data centre operators to report their participation in cryptocurrency mining, the amount of power consumed by these enterprises in the past year and its percentage amount to the total energy consumed by the data centre. The deadline was noon on Wednesday.
China’s three main telecommunications network operators, all of which operate data centres, also received the notice, according to an unnamed official cited in a Reuters report.
The Beijing bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
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Beijing’s inquiry comes amid China’s efforts to curb all high energy-consuming industries, fight pollution and reduce its carbon emissions.