The New York Times: For national security reasons, U.S. government officials are monitoring certain Bitcoin miners linked to China
ChainCatcher news, according to The New York Times, U.S. government officials are monitoring certain cryptocurrency mining operations linked to China. Many data centers located in the U.S. can be traced directly back to the Chinese government, raising concerns about operations near military bases and other areas related to national security. One of the sites reportedly being monitored by authorities is a mining operation in Wyoming, which is close to a Microsoft data center that supports some operations of the Pentagon.In a report about the operation, Microsoft stated, "There is no direct evidence that this entity has malicious activity." However, pending further discovery, we believe that the computational power of industrial-grade cryptocurrency mining operations, along with the presence of an unknown number of Chinese nationals directly near Microsoft data centers and one of the three major U.S. strategic missile bases, presents significant threat vectors."It is reported that the company Bit Origin has converted a pork processing plant into a cryptocurrency data center, choosing this location due to an agreement with the local utility provider rather than proximity to Microsoft facilities.