President Biden on Monday ordered a company with Chinese origins to shut down and sell the Wyoming cryptocurrency mine it built a mile from an Air Force base that controls nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.
周一，拜登总统命令一家源自中国的公司关闭并出售其在怀俄明州建造的加密货币矿场，该矿场距离一个控制洲际弹道核导弹的空军基地约1.6公里。
The cryptomining facility, which operates high-powered computers in a data center near the F.E. Warren base in Cheyenne, “presents a national security risk to the United States,” the president said in an executive order, because its equipment could be used for surveillance and espionage.
拜登在一份行政命令中说，这个加密币挖矿设施在位于夏延的联邦调查局F·E·沃伦基地附近的一个数据中心运行高性能计算机，“对美国构成了国家安全风险，”因为它的设备可能被用于监视和间谍活动。
The New York Times reported last October that Microsoft, which operates a nearby data center supporting the Pentagon, had flagged the Chinese-connected cryptocurrency mine to the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, warning that it could enable the Chinese to “pursue full-spectrum intelligence collection operations.” An investigation by the committee identified risks to national security, according to the president’s order.
《纽约时报》去年10月报道称，微软的一个数据中心已向美国联邦外国投资委员会标记了这个与中国有关的加密币矿场，并警告称，它可能使中国人能够“开展全方位的情报收集行动。微软的这个数据中心支持五角大楼，位于该矿场附近。根据总统的命令，该委员会的调查确定了国家安全面临的风险。
The order did not detail those risks. But Microsoft’s report to the federal committee, obtained last year by The Times, said, “We suggest the possibility that the computing power of an industrial-level cryptomining operation, along with the presence of an unidentified number of Chinese nationals in direct proximity to Microsoft’s Data Center and one of three strategic-missile bases in the U.S., provides significant threat vectors.”
行政命令没有详细说明这些风险。但时报去年获得的微软向联邦委员会提交的报告称，“我们认为，工业级加密挖矿作业的计算能力、数量不明的中国公民直接靠近微软数据中心和美国三个战略导弹基地之一的可能性提供了重要的威胁载体。”
Now, the mine must immediately cease operations, and the owners must remove all their equipment within 90 days and sell or transfer the property within 120 days, according to the order, which cites the risks of the facility’s “foreign-sourced” mining equipment. A vast majority of the machinery powering cryptomining operations across the United States is manufactured by Chinese companies.
现在，矿场必须立即停止运营，矿主必须在90天内拆除所有设备，并在120天内出售或转让财产，命令提到了该设施使用“外国来源”采矿设备的风险。美国各地的加密挖矿设备中，绝大多数都是由中国公司制造的。
Cryptomining operations are housed in large warehouses or shipping containers packed with specialized computers that typically run around the clock, performing trillions of calculations per second, hunting for a sequence of numbers that will reward them with new cryptocurrency. The most common is Bitcoin, currently worth more than $60,000 apiece. Crypto mines consume an enormous amount of electricity: At full capacity, the one in Cheyenne would draw as much power as 55,000 homes.
挖矿作业被安置在大型仓库或集装箱里，里面装着专门的计算机，它们通常24小时不停地运行，每秒执行数万亿次计算，寻找一系列数字，以获得新的加密货币。最常见的是比特币，目前每个比特币的价值超过6万美元。加密货币矿消耗大量的电力：在满负荷运转的情况下，夏延矿场的耗电量相当于5.5万户家庭的用电。
Chinese-owned cryptocurrency mines have boomed in the United States since the facilities were effectively banned in China in 2021. While some cryptomining has since restarted in China, Chinese crypto entrepreneurs are drawn to the United States for its relatively cheap electricity and well-developed legal system.
自2021年在中国实际上禁止开采加密货币以来，中国人拥有的加密货币矿场在美国蓬勃发展。虽然一些加密货币挖矿在中国已经重启，但中国的加密货币企业家被美国相对便宜的电力和完善的法律体系所吸引。
The Times found Chinese-owned or -operated Bitcoin mines in at least 12 states, including Arkansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming, that together use as much power as 1.5 million homes. Some are owned by people or companies with links to the Chinese government or the Communist Party. Until recently, the main supplier of equipment for the mines operated from an office in a Communist Party facility on Hainan Island, The Times found.
时报在至少12个州发现了中国人士拥有或经营的比特币矿场，包括阿肯色州、俄亥俄州、俄克拉荷马州、田纳西州、得克萨斯州和怀俄明州，这些矿场的用电量加起来相当于150万户家庭。其中一些由与中国政府或共产党有联系的个人或公司所有。时报发现，直到最近，这些矿场所用设备的主要供应商还在海南岛的一个共产党设施内办公。
President Biden’s order comes on the heels of his signing a bipartisan bill in late April banning the social media app TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese owner sells it.
拜登总统于4月底签署了一项两党法案，禁止社交媒体应用TikTok在美国的使用，除非其中国所有者将其出售。
This is also the second time in recent weeks that Chinese-owned cryptomining operations have been targeted by elected officials.
这也是近几周以来，中国拥有的加密货币挖矿业务第二次成为民选官员的目标。
This month, Arkansas’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, signed two laws restricting foreign ownership of cryptomining operations in the state. The legislation prohibits crypto-mine ownership by foreign nationals from China, Iran, Cuba and other countries subject to State Department rules known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
本月，阿肯色州共和党州长萨拉·赫卡比·桑德斯签署了两项法律，限制该州加密币采矿业务的外国所有权。这项立法禁止来自中国、伊朗、古巴和其他受美国国务院《国际武器贸易条例》约束国家的外国人拥有加密货币矿场。
Arkansas has seen a large influx of Bitcoin mining operations in recent years. In October, The Times reported that Chinese investors with ties to the authoritarian government were operating at least three mines in Arkansas. A former employee connected to the operations wrote of scouring “over 200 target mining sites” in more than 10 states.
近年来，阿肯色州出现了大量比特币挖矿业务。去年10月，时报报道称，与威权政府有联系的中国投资者在阿肯色州经营着至少三个矿场。一名与该行动有关的前雇员写道，他在10多个州搜寻了“200多个目标矿场”。
The laws restricting ownership of cryptomining operations in Arkansas are intended to amend last year’s so-called Right to Mine law, which offered broad protections to the industry by limiting local regulation, and set off a fierce backlash among residents near the mines. One of those operations, with connections to the Chinese nationals, is the target of a lawsuit by residents who say the incessant whine from the thousands of fans cooling the computers has ruined their lives and depressed property values. In addition to new restrictions on noisy operations, the amended law requires cryptomines owned in any part by foreign nationals subject to the arms regulations to completely divest within one year.
限制阿肯色州加密币采矿业务所有权的法律旨在修订去年所谓的“采矿权法”，该法通过限制地方监管，为该行业提供了广泛的保护，但在矿场附近的居民中引发了强烈反对。其中一家与中国公民有关系的公司，是当地居民提起诉讼的对象。他们说，数以千计为电脑降温的风扇发出持续不断的噪音，破坏了他们的生活，压低了房产价值。除了对噪音操作的新限制外，修订后的法律还要求，凡加密币矿场中由受武器条例约束的外国人拥有的部分，在一年内要完全剥离。
Mr. Biden’s order is directed at an offshore company called MineOne Partners Limited and related MineOne entities registered in Delaware. A lawsuit against MineOne filed by a Wyoming cryptocurrency company compelled the disclosure of its owners, which included Chinese nationals. In 2022 Bit Origin Ltd., a former Chinese pork producer that pivoted to cryptocurrency mining, became a partner in a MineOne entity and built the mine, which began operating in early 2023.
拜登的命令针对的是一家名为MineOne Partners Limited的离岸公司，以及在特拉华州注册的相关MineOne实体。怀俄明州一家加密货币公司对MineOne提起的诉讼迫使其披露了所有者，其中包括中国公民。2022年，由猪肉生产转向加密货币挖矿的比特起源有限公司成为MineOne实体的合作伙伴，并建造了矿场，该矿场于2023年初开始运营。
Li Jiaming, the president of Bit Origin Ltd., was not immediately available to comment. In an interview last year, Mr. Li said that investors had chosen the site because they had secured a contract with the local power company to supply its electricity, not because of its proximity to the base or the data center.
记者未能立即联系到比特起源有限公司总裁李家明（音）置评。在去年的一次采访中，李家明说，投资者选择这个地点，是因为他们与当地电力公司签订了一份供电合同，而不是因为该矿址靠近基地或数据中心。