Modern Toolbox: The Chinese government banned crypto mining, and that's a good thing

China's State Council committed to cracking down on cryptocurrency trading and mining this May in an attempt to combat the financial risk that comes with speculative trading. In 2020, cryptocurrency mining firms based in China mined around two-thirds of the total Bitcoin minted that year, with two of these firms providing around 50% of the total global "hash rate" energy used to mint Bitcoin, which has been a topic of concern due to reports that Bitcoin could contribute to global warming. In a July article written for Fortune magazine, journalist Sophie Mellor wrote that if China were to eliminate cryptocurrency…