North America could lead in Bitcoin (BTC) hashrate dominance as China’s capacity drops

China has long been acknowledged as the world’s leader in Bitcoin mining. However, recent reports revealed that China’s BTC hashrate has dramatically dropped opening up the possibility for North America to overtake it.

A recent study published on 8btc.com revealed that China’s Bitcoin hashrate dominance has significantly decreased in just one year. While it is still the leading country when it comes to BTC mining, a 10 percent reduction in its market share could open up the possibility that a competitor could soon overtake it and claim the top spot.

“As of April 2020, the hashrate dominance of Chinese miners on the Bitcoin network was around 65%,” the report noted. “One year later, this dominance has dropped to about 55%.”

The report listed a number of factors that contributed to the decrease of China’s share in the total global Bitcoin hashrate. For instance, China’s government has been known for its unfriendly legislation towards cryptos and Bitcoin and has imposed restrictions on cryptocurrency activities. This action might have discouraged new investors and hampered the sector’s growth.

China is also aiming to reduce its carbon emissions and there was even a proposal to shutter Bitcoin mining operations in Inner Mongolia, which is a significant region in the mining world as it accounted for about 8% of the global hashrate, according to Bitcoin.com. Similarly, Sichuan and other regions are also tightening energy requirements.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has been gaining momentum recently and now accounts for 11 percent of the global Bitcoin hashrate, a vast improvement from April 2020 when the entire North American region accounted for only 8.5 percent of the total hashrate. What’s interesting is that U.S. and Canadian miners won’t suffer future emission-related setbacks as new farms run on renewable energy.

But it won’t be an easy task for North America to overtake China’s hashrate dominance. A new report published Minerdaily.com revealed that it would require a massive amount of investment in mining rigs so the region could add another 63 EH/s to pull it off.

“From our investigation, we find that in order for USA and Canada to take the hashing power lead over China, they must secure a minimum of 63 more EH/s this year,” the report said. “This equates to an extra order of 630,000 ASICs, with an average of 100 TH/s, costing nearly $4 billion dollars. Thus, it is most probable that China continues to possess the majority of Bitcoin’s mining power in 2021.”

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