Biden's executive order banning MineOne from owning land near an Air Force base

[NikeFit_7777]

US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order banning Chinese mining company MineOne Partners Ltd. from owning land near a US Air Force base. The document claims that the firm's proximity to F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, poses a potential national security risk. The company is now required to sell the land and remove certain equipment on the property.

News link: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2335

[Outhue]

President Biden doesn't know anything about crypto and the blockchain, and this is a big disgrace for saying that mining poses a potential national security risk, in what way? Can someone explain this to me?

Since 2010 the people of the United States have been mining Bitcoin, why now? No security threat since 2010? Biden is never getting any votes from crypto fans, I am so sure of this.

[Freemind]

I don't understand... The mine has been there for almost two years. Has the government realized this now or is this decision due to other reasons?. Because although I don't have exact information, I imagine that the air force base has been there for much longer. I suppose the interesting thing about this news would be to know what those "certain improvements and equipment" are, but I doubt we will ever know, considering the secrecy that always surrounds military affairs, and the fact that MineOne Partners Ltd. will also not be able to make statements or give its version of what happened.

[philipma1957]

I don't understand... The mine has been there for almost two years. Has the government realized this now or is this decision due to other reasons?. Because although I don't have exact information, I imagine that the air force base has been there for much longer. I suppose the interesting thing about this news would be to know what those "certain improvements and equipment" are, but I doubt we will ever know, considering the secrecy that always surrounds military affairs, and the fact that MineOne Partners Ltd. will also not be able to make statements or give its version of what happened.

Once again the so called threat to USA security is invoked.

[Freemind]

Once again the so called threat to USA security is invoked.

It's true. It seems that when the United States government talks about “national security” everyone stops asking questions and accepts the official statement without talking about it again. Although, like I said, I know it's not going to happen, but I would like to know MineOne Partners Ltd.'s version of events so we can compare. But I imagine it's all already filed and it's a secret.

I find the Wikipedia entry very curious since some points collide with each other.

If anyone is interested in knowing more: National security.

[philipma1957]

Once again the so called threat to USA security is invoked.

It's true. It seems that when the United States government talks about “national security” everyone stops asking questions and accepts the official statement without talking about it again. Although, like I said, I know it's not going to happen, but I would like to know MineOne Partners Ltd.'s version of events so we can compare. But I imagine it's all already filed and it's a secret.

I find the Wikipedia entry very curious since some points collide with each other.

If anyone is interested in knowing more: National security.

Well the twin towers burning makes a very stark image for us Americans. I lost a cousin he was a firefighter he died in the towers fighting the blaze

[ABCbits]

National security risks is really overused excuse to arrest someone or stop someone from doing something they don't like. ASIC designed only to mine cryptocurrency with specific algorithm. How can ASIC affect U.S. military installations? It doesn't make sense.

[Freemind]

Well the twin towers burning makes a very stark image for us Americans. I lost a cousin he was a firefighter he died in the towers fighting the blaze

I'm sorry you lost a family member in the horror of the twin towers.

National security risks is really overused excuse to arrest someone or stop someone from doing something they don't like. ASIC designed only to mine cryptocurrency with specific algorithm. How can ASIC affect U.S. military installations? It doesn't make sense.

Of course it is something overused, they use it for many things, and in the vast majority of cases it does not have much to do, or it is not clear, that it is related to national security, so we could call it a "perfect excuse". I don't think the problem itself is the mining ASICs, but rather, as written in the article, "certain improvements and equipment". Those equipment improvements are what caused the Biden administration to issue the order, but as I said, we will never know the real reason, and of course, the affected company will not make any official statement in this regard.

[Stompix]

I don't understand... The mine has been there for almost two years. Has the government realized this now or is this decision due to other reasons?. Because although I don't have exact information, I imagine that the air force base has been there for much longer.

The purchase happened in 2022, by law every purchase/construction etc in special zones must be first reviewed and approved by a foreign investment committee, basically, they bought the land and started mining

MineOne did not file the transaction with CFIUS until after CFIUS’s non-notified team investigated the transaction as a result of a public tip.  CFIUS’s non-notified function has been enhanced by authorities provided by Congress in FIRRMA and ongoing appropriations to support the Committee’s ability to identify and review non-notified transactions. 

It's not about the ASICs being a threat it's the fact that they imported gear from an unknown source and built that thing there without a permit or allowing inspections, they could have started building a large hardon collider there and there was no way to check every day what they were doing.

[philipma1957]

Well I suppose they could have been more transparent then they were.

But the mine pulls power. bigly
the mine has 24/7/365 internet traffic.
Pretty easy access to the airforce base due to the close proximity.

I wonder 💭 exactly what needs to be hidden.

Also how legal is it to film air force activities.

I am near fort McQuire it has lots of military activity I could photo it pretty easy peasy.

Is it worthwhile for a spy to do this I don’t think so.

But what exactly could a foreign national access by being a mile or 2 from a military base?

usually spys work at people on the base via honey trapping more than any other method.

[paid2]

It's true. It seems that when the United States government talks about “national security” everyone stops asking questions and accepts the official statement without talking about it again. Although, like I said, I know it's not going to happen, but I would like to know MineOne Partners Ltd.'s version of events so we can compare. But I imagine it's all already filed and it's a secret.

I find the Wikipedia entry very curious since some points collide with each other.

If anyone is interested in knowing more: National security.

Even if security is the reason given, it doesn't make sense. I'm convinced that this decision is the collateral damage of a little diplomatic or commercial negotiation that didn't go the way the US wanted. I think this kind of slightly irrational decision is often a wink and a nudge when negotiations don't satisfy one of the parties (as with the French Cognac story in China recently, or as Trump threatened to do with certain Chinese imports/companies).

[Freemind]

Although we will never know with 100% certainty what really happened, the reason is probably simply that MineOne Partners Ltd is a Chinese company. Although there are nuclear missiles in these military zone, I do not think that the security of those missiles is the reason, since in those places it is usually the highest. Relations between both countries are not very good at the moment, so "national security" and the fact that there are missiles is the perfect excuse for the mining company to have to move its facilities.

[Zed0X]

While reading the OP, I was thinking of the possible power interruption in the area as the reason why they said the mining company could pose a security risk but then I noticed it's Chinese. That is all we needed to know. No need to think about crypto and blockchain technology.

[Freemind]

While reading the OP, I was thinking of the possible power interruption in the area as the reason why they said the mining company could pose a security risk but then I noticed it's Chinese. That is all we needed to know. No need to think about crypto and blockchain technology.

I'm not entirely sure, but I imagine that the air base has its own electrical generators (and they will also have secondary generators in case there are system failures) and that for safety reasons there can be no interruptions in the power supply, especially taking into account the things that are stored and that theoretically have to always be ready to be used at any time.

If the mining company were from the United States, I suppose nothing would have happened. That's why I came to the same conclusion as you after reading the article again.

[Stompix]

If the mining company were from the United States, I suppose nothing would have happened. That's why I came to the same conclusion as you after reading the article again.

Here is a more detailed article and there is a bit of extra info that might clear a few misunderstandings:
https://www.mofo.com/resources/insights/240517-president-biden-orders-chinese-owned-firm

I don't think I need to even explain the thing about power, no the mining company had a different contract with a different provider a different plant than the security zone.

But:
- of course, no American company would be subject to this because American companies don't fall into CFIUS, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which obviously targets only foreign investments, American companies don't require a permit, but foreign companies do, minerone didn't get one!
- second, most importantly, they knew about this well before, actually before the executive order came in on the 13rd of May, Mineone already sold all its business one week before to CleanSparks
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/827876/000095017024056937/clsk-ex10_1.htm
Cealnsparks denied knowing about the ban but they had to come clean about knowing about the purchase of Mineone assets since their 2023 filling gave it away, so Mineone was selling their business at least 6 months before these things emerged
- Mineone sold all its contracts and datacenter, yet there is no word of ASICs, were there even miners there?
- Mineone claimed to have 400MW, equivalent to approximately 135,000 miners, they only had 35MW of power available
- other than investors briefings they never issued any paper on their mining capabilities nor the amount they have mined (ever!) nor did they fill anything on their activity
- on top of that there is this:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wyd.63456/gov.uscourts.wyd.63456.1.0_1.pdf
Mineone was actually sued in 2023 by their power provider and the datacenter developer for a breach of contract, and here is the juicy part

- if the US had wanted to send a message and make China care about it (just for comparison look at the EV taxes they put up when they wanted to send a threat), they would have targeted the big guys, yet Bitdeer is happily mining it Texas with two 700MW and 400MW facilities since 2019

Now let be honest, if you have foreign company that builds stuff without permits, that is sued by a partner who says it brings in foreign citizens and foreign workers that have no qualification for what they do, that is has restricted access to its partners from the site, that hasn't published anything since 2021, that has released no data on its team, workforce, financial data and it operates from the Virgin Islands, what would have done? I bet most would have said that if they want to do all like in China then they should go back to China, right?