Which cities around the world see the most blockchain activity? It all depends upon what kind of activity you’re looking for, whether it’s conferences, investing, mining, commerce or something else.
We’ve scanned the landscape to identify some of the top cities for blockchain action in different areas.
Events
It should come as no surprise that the cities hosting top blockchain conferences and other big events are usually also global centres for finance and/or technology: Amsterdam, Bangalore, Dubai, Johannesburg, London, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Tokyo and Toronto.
But other cities have also made blockchain innovation an important part of their economic development programs. They include Austin, Texas, where the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business has organised an April 13 conference on blockchain ‘Opportunities & Realities’; Kuala Lumpur, which will host Malaysia’s inaugural ‘Blocfest’ on May 8 and 9; and St. Julian’s, Malta, which will host the ‘Malta Blockchain Summit’ this November.
Investment
According to a recent analysis by Status Money, the US cities with the largest per-capita holdings in cryptocurrencies include Jacksonville, Florida; Memphis, Tennessee; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Charleston, South Carolina; Alpharetta, Georgia; Sunnyvale, California; Santa Clara, California; San Mateo, California; Torrance, California; and Manhattan, New York.
(For overall, rather than per-capita holdings, the top cities are Manhattan, Chicago, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Los Angeles.)
San Francisco is also the global leader in initial coin offering activity, followed by Moscow, London, Singapore, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Tallinn, Berlin and Shanghai.
Bitcoin activity
Bitnodes’ regularly updated map shows that bitcoin nodes are heavily concentrated in several parts of the US, the UK and the midsection of Europe, with smaller hotspots in the Middle East, eastern and southeast Asia, Australia and the southern parts of Africa and South America.
In addition to the other top cities already noted above, metropolitan areas with lots of bitcoin activity include Bangkok, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Denver, Helsinki, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Sydney, Tel Aviv and Zurich.
Bitcoin-friendly
Coinmap lists more than 12,000 businesses around the world that accept bitcoin, litecoin, peercoin or opencoin, showing the largest concentrations in all the expected places like Bangkok, Berlin, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, and so on. Among other noteworthy cities where you can spend cryptocurrencies: Bogota; Brisbane; Chiniot, Pakistan; Honolulu; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Taipei; and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Cryptocurrency mining
In addition to reliable internet connectivity and high-speed networking capabilities, electricity costs are a big factor when it comes to finding the best locations for cryptocurrency mining. While China’s reliance on coal-fired power takes some of the blame for crypto’s high environmental footprint, the country also has ample hydroelectric power, which explains the concentration of miners in cities like Chengdu and smaller towns in the mountainous regions of Sichuan province.
Other areas with low-cost energy resources ideal for mining operations include Reykjavik; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Vancouver, Canada.