China bitcoin: Inner Mongolia reinforces Beijing’s ban on mining with strict rules as more operators prepare to relocate offshore

Northern China’s Inner Mongolia region has has escalated its endeavours to stamp out cryptocurrency mining with tough new draft rules that propose harsh punishments for anyone engaged in the practice, a move that will accelerate the relocation of mining outside China.

Targeting industrial parks, data centres, telecoms companies, internet firms, and even cybercafes, the draft rules promise to punish bitcoin miners or those providing resources to miners by banning them from the region’s power trading scheme, revoking business licenses, and even shutting their businesses down completely, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the region’s top economic planner.

Under the new rules, which are available for public review until June 1, individuals who flout the regulations could be put on a social credit blacklist barring them from getting loans or making use of the country’s transportation system, as well as facing other legal consequences.

Although the creation and trading of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have been illegal in China since 2017 – a move that forced exchanges like Binance, Huobi and OkEx offshore – authorities have until recently turned a blind eye to the companies and individuals that “mine” bitcoin by operating the computers that make up the cryptocurrency’s decentralised network.