Coronavirus shuts down Chinese Bitcoin mine

A Bitcoin mine in China has been closed by authorities trying to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic.

Jiang Zhuoer, who runs mining pool BTC.Top, posted on Chinese social networking site Weibo on Tuesday, “I have a mine in a remote suburb. The police came and forced all the mining authorities to shut down.” 

“It is understandable to take a regular… roll call, and strictly prohibit going out, but what’s the benefit of shutting down the mining machine to prevent the epidemic?” Jiang said. 

Where is coronavirus affecting?

It’s unclear where the mine in question is, but some comments indicate that it’s in the province of Xinjiang, far west of Wuhan, where the epidemic started. Few in Xinjiang have the virus. 

“Maybe all the other factories have been shut down, and we are no exception,” Jiang said. “If [this continues], most people (especially the frontline workers who live from hand to mouth), will die from poverty before they die from the epidemic.”

The coronavirus is thought to have originated in a food market in Wuhan. The city, and neighboring provinces, have been on lockdown as efforts mount to contain the virus. 

The latest figures, as of Thursday, say that 564 have died, and over 26,060 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the country, according to the World Health Organization. The fatality rate in Wuhan is 4.1%.