China’s government has officially labeled cryptocurrency mining “obsolete” in an effort aimed at reinforcing government efforts to clampdown on the energy intensive industry.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission made the “obsolete” designation as an update to a 2019 policy document that spelled out how the country of 1.4 billion people would shift its economy to a model that focuses on cleaner, less resource-intensive industries.
The obsolete label refers to technologies that would be banned from seeking investment and would need to be phased out in China within a certain time period. However, the Commission did not provide a deadline for cryptocurrency mining to be officially eliminated within China.
China was home to more Bitcoin mining operators than anywhere else in the world until last year when government clampdowns drove most cryptocurrency miners out of the country and to other jurisdictions around the world, including Canada.
