TechSpot - The US overtakes China for the first time to become the global crypto mining leader
 
“What just happened? For the first time, the US has surpassed China to become the global crypto mining leader. It follows months of cryptocurrency clampdowns by the Asian nation, which has led to miners and mining companies moving to more welcoming locations.
 
Despite the Chinese government's obvious dislike of crypto, the country has long been responsible for the majority of the global bitcoin hash rate—partly because of its cheaper electricity—taking a 75% share in September 2019. But this year has seen China push down harder on the industry than ever before: a big crackdown back in May resulted in miners closing down their businesses; authorities started shutting down more operations in June; and China recently declared all crypto transactions illegal.
 
According to figures published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the new crackdowns have seen China's share drop by 60% in just a few months. Now, it stands at zero.
 
China's loss is other countries' gain. The US share of the global BTC hash rash jumped from 17% in April to a world-leading 35.4% share in July. Second-place Kazakhstan went from 8% to 18%, while third-place Russia is on 11% after being at 6.8% three months earlier. Canada is fourth with a 9.6% share, having been on just 3% in April.
 
‘The whole narrative of China controls bitcoin is now completely destroyed,’ Boaz Sobrado, a London-based fintech data analyst, told CNBC.
 
The migration of crypto miners from China has resulted in increased power demands for the countries taking them in. A single Bitcoin transaction, including the resources needed to mine the coin and to verify the transaction, can total upwards of 1,700 kilowatt hours (kWh). One mining company bought a Pennsylvania power plant that produces enough power for 1,800 Bitcoin miners, with output increases planned to support more than 20,000 miners by 2022.
 
The rising interest in mining and increasing coin values are impacting graphics card prices and availability, though Nvidia is still rumored to be releasing more products in January, which seems strange considering people can't even find or afford its current offerings. But it's expected that Ethereum's move from a proof-of-work (PoW) model to proof-of-stake (PoS) will help ameliorate the situation.”
 
My thoughts:  I don’t think that Etherum’s move fron PoW to PoS is going to impact GPU availability that much as there are more cryptocurrencies to be mined. 

ty_ger07

Flint 1760
My thoughts:  I don’t think that Etherum’s move fron PoW to PoS is going to impact GPU availability that much as there are more cryptocurrencies to be mined. 

... and because cryptocurrency hasn't been the largest driver of GPU sales. When 75% of GPU sales are for things other than mining, it seems odd to focus only on mining.

Nope, people have been focused on the @25% of GPU sales to mining thinking that when Etherum moved to PoS, that GPU availability would increase and I'm just opining that availability isn't going to change.  Personally, I think that if today we had unlimited availability, that mining would still make up 25% of sales.  Baring outside forces, I think mining, like gaming, workstations, AI training, etc., is going to be a noticeable percentage of the sales revenue from now on.

Waste of tech and energy.

MasterMiner
Waste of tech and energy.

It is not.
 

rjohnson11
Since China is cracking down on energy consumption this makes perfect sense. 

China isn't cracking down on energy usage. China is trying to use less coal power plants for energy to get the air clean before the Olympics. Soon as the Olympics are over, those coal power plants will be back up and running.

It will be interesting to see what happens after the olympics in China since while I agree that they will want to make the air clean until after the games I don't know how China will keep up with changing demand that the country will have with it's super fast growth.