Cryptocurrency miners in Quebec City (Canada) expressed their concern over the closed auction system that is currently being used by the local hydroelectric company Hydro-Québec to allow mining operations in that area, which they believe to favor the Chinese mining company Bitmain. .

Through a series of tweets posted on his social network account this July 3, the bitcoin miner and founder of D-Central Technologies , Jonathan Bertrand, on behalf of the miners in the area, exposed his complaints and conjectures about the new measures taken by the hydroelectric company (owned by the government of Canada), which last June reported that it would eliminate a moratorium on providing electricity for cryptocurrency mining in force since March 2018.

The new measure restores the possibility of providing energy for the mining activity, although with the condition of only supplying energy to the companies elected by the hydroelectric plant according to its own internal guidelines, based on the price that the interested parties were willing to pay, in addition to the number of jobs they generate and the investments they make in the region. Along with this norm, Hydro-Québec also tripled its electricity rates , also establishing differentiated amounts according to consumption, with the possibility of cutting off the supply in case of congestion of the local network.

Bertrand noted that this is a regulation that favors the participation of large companies, especially Bitmain , one of the largest bitcoin mining companies in the world, which for months has expressed interest in starting operations in the Canadian province.

Thus, according to the local community of miners, the measures seem to have been designed to the extent of the machine manufacturer ASIC , so that if an agreement is reached, small Quebec mining companies would be affected, at risk of closing.

For local miners, the mining giant is trying to monopolize the industry in Quebec after having already done so in China. It is even alleged that Bitmain has falsified applications to push the province to revalue its offer to sell electricity to any mining company that wants it, in addition to not offering clear information about the jobs and investments it will generate in the country.

Bertrand says that this type of situation is making Quebec an almost impossible place for national mining operations to operate, adding that if he does not see favorable progress for his project, by the end of July he could close his business to move to another zone. A position shared by other miners in the province , who - along with more than a hundred companies - have been waiting for more encouraging government decisions for months to start their projects.

CONTROVERSY AROUND THE QUEBEC MINING PARADISE

The controversy over the issue of cryptocurrency mining in Quebec derives from information circulating since the end of last year, when the province was promoted as the place offering the lowest electricity tariffs in North America , a fact that made it a very desirable destination for companies aspiring to bitcoin mining operations. At that time, Hydro-Québec encouraged potential mining operations to reach that city, promising to sell 6TWh of electricity to Bitcoin miners for 4 years. In response, the hydroelectric plant received many proposals, mainly from Asian companies.

However, because the requested quantity of electricity became much larger than the province could supply, the supply was stopped last March and a review process was implemented to help ensure that these operations generate added value for Québec and not the other way around

In this regard, the prime minister of the province, Philippe Couillard, considered that the mere fact of accepting companies that did mining and acquire new bitcoins did not generate added value for the province , for which he suggested imposing a new higher electricity tariff to all those mining companies that are located there.

It is worth mentioning that, in their search for the best places for the development of the activity, miners have been interested in other places in the world, where they also offer low rates, cold weather and abundance of energy. They include Wenatchee, a small town located in Washington (United States), and Siberia (Russia), where even a deputy proposed the creation of a city to mine cryptoactive.