China Prepares to Limit Bitcoin Miners’ Power Usage

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has reportedly claimed it can pressure local governments in the country to regulate bitcoin miners’ power usage.

Reuters is reporting that China’s central bank has told members of the Leading Group of Beijing Internet Financial Risks Remediation in a meeting that it can ‘tell’ local governments in Chinese provinces to regulate the power consumption of bitcoin miners. Citing a source, the PBOC plans to carry out such a move against miners to ‘gradually reduce the scale of their production.’

While admitting that it is powerless to regulate bitcoin mining on its own, PBoC officials reportedly said they can indirectly push the agenda by asking local governments and authorities to do so.

The Leading Group of Beijing Internet Financial Risks Remediation is the same government internet finance group that mandated the shuttering of bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges on September 5, a day after China’s central bank enforced a blanket ban on all initial coin offerings (ICOs).