To avoid the increasing power consumption and speculation, China's regulators are planning to ban mining in the long-term according to leaked documents by Jan 2. However, it will be almost impossible to shut down the massive increasing number of smaller mining facilities as they can be operated with hydropower plants; The answer to regulation could be off-grid.
China has the greatest processing power devoted to bitcoin mining. It is the leading industry in mining hardware and mining pools.
A set-up of Icarus mining hardware from Canaan Creative Co. Ltd. in China.
Russia and India have great potential to grow in mining this year. Russian's president Putin is also in the game with the help of RMC. A very good analysis you can find here:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@lannocc/russian-miner-coin-ico-raising-usd100-million-to-defeat-chinese-bitcoin-mining
Source: https://qz.com/1174091/china-wants-an-orderly-exit-from-bitcoin-mining/
Leaked Source:
If what you say is true, taking count of all the chinese involvement in mining would make sense and is a smart move of them, it's clear from my perspective that POW has no future and they seem to think ahead. Perhaps this is good and will influence the bitcoin community to eventually opt for something less energy consuming.
Also, perhaps it would be better for bitcoin to have developers from different parts of the world, including china, that way we can avoid having them all bought off that easily.
PoW has its legitimacy and will have a future, in my opinion. When you look towards the characteristics of money you will find out that PoS, PoA, etc... is good for other things. Hayek predicted in the 70s that there will be a natural competition between these exchangeable goods.
Decentralisation is the key. They can cut off the energy and network - Miners will find their way. If this happens with renewable energy - great! - maybe regulation is better than expected. Protection of scarce resources is a good move I guess.
Learn everything about crypto mining: https://www.wissen.fun/en/crypto-mining/