Currently, 21 of Ethiopia’s Bitcoin miners are Chinese, and the country is expected to become a very big rival to Texas in terms of power generation.
Ethiopia is officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The country is located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. As of 2023, the population is approximately 128 million, making it the 13th most populous country in the world.
According to available local reports, Ethiopia has seen a huge influx of Bitcoin mining companies. There are currently 21 Bitcoin mining companies in the country, all of which have signed power supply contracts with the national electricity supply authority.
Notably, only two of the 21 Bitcoin mining companies are non-Chinese. Simply put, 90.4% of Ethiopian cryptocurrency mining companies are Chinese.
Some media reports have pointed to the large number of Chinese Bitcoin mining companies coming to the country and have called it a home base for Chinese miners.
According to Bitmain, the African country’s power generation capacity for Bitcoin mining operations will very likely compete with that of Texas in the next few years.
Interestingly, Ethereum’s biggest rival, the Cardano (ADA) cryptocurrency project, is also participating in African countries to drive adoption of the Cardano blockchain technology at a commercial level.
In the first quarter of 2023, John O’Connor, Director of Africa Operations at Cardano development company Input Output Global (IOHK), confirmed that the first pilot had been completed and the Ministry was starting to train users on the features and how to use them.
IOHK began working on Cardano-based decentralized identity and digital credentials in Ethiopia in 2021.
China Cryptocurrency Ban and Miners Exodus
In mid-2021, China announced a complete ban on all cryptocurrency-related activities across mainland China.
Before the end of 2021, most companies have relocated to Kazakhstan or Texas, USA.
In particular, the Kazakh government officially proposed to a Chinese cryptocurrency mining company to establish a domestic business, but Kazakhstan subsequently failed to provide continuous power supply, which became a major reason why mining company owners began moving from Kazakhstan to other jurisdictions.
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