Author:
The bitcoin miners who are ousted from China with the latest crackdown could find a place in Miami, Florida. The city’s mayor, Francis Suarez, said he’s working on lowering the costs for electricity in order to attract more miners to the region.
BTC Miners Going to Miami?
In a recent interview with CNBC, Francis Suarez spoke about the city’s BTC adoption, but this time he specifically focused on mining. He also touched on the topic of using clean energy.
Miami’s mayor wants to utilize the region’s cheap nuclear energy to “make sure that our city has an opportunity to complete.”
“We are talking to a lot of companies and just telling them, ‘Hey, we want you to be here.’ The fact that we have nuclear power means that it’s very inexpensive power.” – he added.
Although Suarez admitted that the current prices are still higher than those in China, he promised to work on lowering the costs as “miners want to get to a certain kilowatt price per hour.”
Miners who indeed relocate to Miami might receive additional benefits, including crypto-tailored enterprise zones. They operate as areas in which the authorities offer tax concessions, infrastructure incentives, and scaled-back regulations to encourage investments and create jobs.
Nevertheless, Suarez outlined the complexity of such a project, saying, “it’s not something that happens overnight.”
Miami’s mayor has highlighted his support for the cryptocurrency space for several months now. He recently admitted buying BTC and ETH at below $40,000 and $1,500, respectively, and urged his city to become a Bitcoin hub.
Why Do Chinese Miners Need a New Home?
The majority of the Bitcoin hash rate has come from the world’s most populated nation for years. China has dominated the market with its cheap energy, accounting for over 60% of the mining. However, the country has also displayed a highly adverse policy against the industry, which has escalated in recent months.
Bitcoin has been officially banned for almost a decade in China, but the authorities took it a step further in May. Certain regions started to prohibit Bitcoin mining, which urged miners to look for alternatives.
Some reports suggested that the US could indeed take a large share of the pie, with Texas leading the race so far. However, Miami and its pro-BTC mayor could disrupt this by luring miners in through cheap nuclear energy.
