Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts

China MOCKED On Twitter For Announcing They're Banning Crypto... For The 7th Time Since 2013!

China Bans Crypto

Bitcoin was banned in China today - this followed the previous ban, which was enacted following the ban before that - which came after the first still-active ban.

Yes - the truth is that ridiculous.

To People New To Crypto "China Bans Crypto" Sounds Like An Important Story - But, It Isn't...

Every few months, China bans crypto. They've been doing it for years.

Not only is it a non-story because nothing changes fundamentally, but China has been announcing crypto bans for so long we have historical data to prove that Bitcoin's value passes every price-point they made these announcements at - a predicion we can believe will happen again, as it has been tested and re-tested several times over.

Actually, China does this so often, crypto-twitter waits on standby with memes ready for the occasion.  Let's let them sum up the situation...


China bitcoin meme


china bitcoin ban meme


china crypto meme


china bitcoin ban

Those were a few favorites, and on a day when you've watched a chunk of your portfolio's value disappear for such a ridiculous reason - all you can do is laugh and remember: it's always recovered!

Looking forward to seeing what memes people come up with next time - which unfortunately, we all know is coming. 

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Author: Justin Derbek
New York News Desk


WHY Does Chinese Economic Issues Effect The Crypto Market? Well... It's OUR FAULT...

The definition of 'panic' says those feeling it have 'uncontrollable anxiety' often causing 'wildly unthinking behavior' - so when we look at incidents of 'panic selling' it's no surprise that when the panic is over and we look back, it often becomes clear that decisions made weren't made logically.

Selling crypto in response to anything happening in China is one of those illogical decisions. 

The ONLY Way Economic Turbulence In China Effects Crypto is if WE Allow it...

Did people forget China COMPLETELY cut ties with the cryptocurrency market?

China's authoritarian ban on cryptocurrency trading and mining (so, everything) means that news from China triggering crashes in crypto is caused entirely by people outside of China panic selling, and including crypto among the assets they're dumping. 

People based in China may decide to sell off US stocks, but they aren't dumping crypto they don't own.

Until the past year many would rightfully point out 'but many Chinese do own crypto, the government can't actually stop it'. But this isn't like before.

Yes, a couple years ago there was a thriving underground of Chinese crypto traders ignoring government warnings.  Today it's not worth the risk - people have been arrested, and financial service companies face harsh penalties for serving anyone suspected of profiting from crypto.

In other words, with both law enforcement and the banking industry in China actively enforcing the ban, successful trading would be followed by the nearly impossible task of getting those profits into the country. 

Profits made legitimately would need to go through a money laundering process - this is the point 99.9% of people call it quits. 

"China’s government is doing everything they can to ensure that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies disappear from the Chinese financial systems and economy" said Fred Thiel, a member of the Bitcoin Mining Council.

The Final Nail in Coffin of Crypto in China was the Launch of their Own Digital Currency...

With the launch of their own digital currency, the digital Yuen, they see crypto as a competitor to their own digital coin. In a country where getting rid of competition is as easy as outlawing the competitor, the competition was over before it started. 

China May Have Wanted Bitcoin DEAD, Everywhere...

It's also worth noting that many suspect the move to ban crypto mining actually had much larger goals - to destroy bitcoin completely.

It's a bit disturbing to think about, but the idea of pulling half of all miners offline sounds like a good way bring chaos to the crypto market - and that's exactly what China did. 

Thankfully, the chaos never came. 

Instead of crashing, Bitcoin proved it's resiliency. Miners around the world were quick to pick up the slack, and there's rumors of Chinese miners fleeing the country with their equipment but preferring to keep their destination unknown for now. 

In Closing...

My point is simple - China made their stance clear, their economy is to have no ties to cryptocurrency, period. Currently, when Chinese investors sell assets in a panic sell-off, it won't include crypto. 

On weeks like this our disconnect from China is an advantage - so let's take advantage of it.  Crypto could be a 'safe haven from Chinese market volatility' because on a technical level that's true - investors just need to treat it that way.

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Author: Ross Davis 
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco Newsroom / Breaking Crypto News

100,000 Chinese Citizens Just Begun Testing The Government's Official New Cryptocurrency....

 national chinese cryptocurrency
100,000 inhabitants of the city of Shenzhen, in China, received 200 digital yuan (e-CNY) each, which is about $30 US, and will be able to spend them in more than 3,000 retail stores, among which are large international chains such as Walmart.

Citizens had to apply online to win a raffle style contest to receive the digital funds - now they must spend it between February 1 and 9, 2021. After February 9, the Government takes back anything that was not spent.

Currently some options are unavailable, for example users will not be able to make transfers between each other, a feature that will be allowed when the coin is officially launched.

The Chinese government's plan is for the digital currency to be fully operational for use during the next  Olympics, which will take place in Beijing in 2022.

An official digital currency also brings a with it a new level of surveillance powers by the government over it's citizens - this is one of many recent steps towards expanded control.  

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Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk 

Chinese Government's Official National Cryptocurrency: How It Will Work....


Earlier this year China started a closed trial of their new entirely digital currency, DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment)

Linked to the Yuan, the DCEP is China's attempt to broaden it's influence and limit the proliferation of cryptocurrencies. In this video, we explain the DCEP, the pros and cons and why China wants to implement it so badly.

Video Courtesy of TLDR News UK

Facebook's 'Libra' Cryptocurrency Scared Chinese Government Into Developing Similar - Now Libra Is Stalled, And China Keeps Moving...

The process of understanding digital currencies began in China all the way back in 2014, when the Chinese Central Bank conducted basic, preliminary 'studies' - just so they would know what they were dealing with.

But lately, China has made it clear they're done learning.  The student may soon become the teacher.  That is, China is on a path to lead the world as the first country with true digital national currency.

While Venesuala's Petro is technically issued by the government, that nation's political issues stopped the Petro from being a functional  currency used in the global market. Because the nations rejecting it would still be rejecting it whether it was a cryptocurrency or not, so we can't consider the Petro an example of how a national cryptocurrency would function.

One of my sources, an analyst within a well known firm in the blockchain space has had the Chinese government as a client for awhile now, but only lately have they stepped things up, he explained: "Actions accelerated last October when they wanted to know every possible outcome of replacing the renminbi with a cryptocurrency.  Their goal being to reduce the costs inherent to issuance of paper money." 

He continued, touching on their general sentiment currently "They seem convinced of the advantages of crypto, and still debating potential disadvantages.  We're one of a few outlets providing a neutral 3rd party opinion.' 

Looking in to what was happening publicly around this time in October, we saw the approval of a new law for the use of cryptography, and President Xi Jinping offered statements in favor of considering some blockchains central technologies for "important and innovative advances".

 Why the sudden acceleration? China's Fear Of Facebook.

Everyone I spoke to that I consider an expert on China said the same thing - they looked at Facebook's plans for Libra, and went into panic mode. 

Facebook and China have consistently clashed - they're very aware that Facebook is outside of their sphere of control.

"To them, the plans for Libra could have been presented by a US Government official and it would have been received the same - that's how they view Facebook. An American company, that tried to bring their platform to China but still wanted to follow US rules - not conform to China's" a contact who works inside a Hong Kong based crypto exchange told me.

There's a disaster coming if things don't change...

While Libra may have lit the fire that put China into overdrive, Facebook's fire here has been snuffed out by the US Government.

I'm no fan of Facebook, but I also never viewed Libra as a threat to other cryptocurrencies, if anything, it would serve as an easy first step into the cryptocurrency world, where people could get their feet wet.  Libra users would soon wander deeper into the waters, having gotten over the initial fear of using cypto for the first time.

American politicians actions against Libra may end with a global coin that isn't bound to USD, but the Yuen instead.

The clips I've seen of elderly US politicians who clearly lack any basic knowledge of how cryptocurrencies work, grandstanding and flexing their authority to Zuckerberg on TV seem dead set on hauling Libra.

Meaning China could end up first to market with a big global cryptocurreny, while the US is at a complete stand-still.

Like it or not, the combination of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and the ability to aggressively push the users of these apps to try Libra, is a shortcut to 'mass adoption' no one else can mimic.

I get not liking Facebook, but I don't get stopping them just to allow China to do it instead.

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

"Ban all cryptocurrency mining!" says the Chinese Government agency with the authority to actually do it...


 The 'National Development Reform Commission' is the most powerful authority in China when it comes to deciding which industries are allowed to exist within the country.

Every year they release a list of businesses they want to abolish - and Bitcoin mining is on their latest one, citing the usual 'wasteful energy consumption' and 'speculative bubbles' criticisms as the reason.

It's safe to say the rest of the global cryptocurrency community wouldn't miss China one bit.

Except for taking Bitcoin earned through mining, China is already completely disconnected from the cryptocurrency space, as citizens are banned from regular cryptocurrency trading, and have been since 2017.

Video Courtesy of Bloomberg Asia


Chinese government seizes full control of the blockchain, citizens & businesses warned: identities behind all computers on network must be submitted by Feb 15th...

China's ruling communist party, the People's Republic of China has announced a set of new laws to ensure blockchain technology cannot, and will not ever be used for the proposes of challenging the government.

In the new regulations published just hours ago on the official website of the government regulators, the strict new rules are laid out as follows:

(Translated)

"Follow all provisions of the "Network Security Law of the People's Republic of China", conduct real identity information based on the organization code, identity card number or mobile phone number for the blockchain information service users. If the user does not perform real identity authentication, the blockchain information service provider shall not provide related services."

No ID, no blockchain. You are not permitted to touch the tech until the government knows exactly which computers on the network belongs to you.

"Blockchain information service providers and users shall not use blockchain information services to engage in activities prohibited by laws and administrative regulations that endanger national security, disrupt social order, and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of others, and may not use blockchain information services. Copy, publish, and disseminate information content prohibited by laws and administrative regulations."

They don't sugar coat the law's purpose one bit - they're implementing this to extend the strict internet censorship already in place, letting citizens know that blockchain technology should never be used as a way to bypass it.

"Service provider must take appropriate measures in a timely manner to prevent the spread of information, keep relevant records, and report to relevant authorities."

If censored information does begin to spread via the blockchain - shut it down, keep the evidence, and call the authorities.

"Service provider shall cooperate with the supervision and inspection carried out by the network information department according to law and provide necessary technical support and assistance."

By operating a blockchain based service, you understand authorities are to be given full access to the network and all computers on it, whenever they may request it.

"The company shall make corrections within a time limit; if it refuses to make corrections or if the circumstances are serious, it shall be given a warning and shall be imposed a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 30,000 yuan."

Each violation can result in a fine that is between approximately $1500 and $4500 USD

On the rare occasion someone from China's blockchain tech industry speaks up, the point they usually make is how they are concerned government overreach could slow industry growth.  Surely these concerns were heard by the government, which has now answered clearly - maintaining control is priority above all else.
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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Surprising results from survey of Chinese citizens shows huge demand for cryptocurrencies...

Said to be the largest survey of it's kind, it asked 4,200 Chinese citizens their stance on the topic of investments, including cryptocurrencies, and the results are surprising many...

● 98% say they've heard of cryptocurrency.

● 40% would like to own some.

● 14% already do own some.

The only investments scoring higher were stocks and real estate.

However, one data point stood out to me, 410 of the 598 people who currently own cryptocurrency say they bought it on exchanges - before exchanges were banned from operating in China.

But three times as many people said they would like to own some, 1665 total - except currently, they can't get any.

Earlier this year Chinese President Xi publicly praised blockchain technology.  At a conference presented by the Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Xi said the technology currently making "breakthroughs" in his opinion were "Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Blockchain" and categorized them as the driving forces behind what he says will be the a "new industrial revolution".

Currently, owning or mining cryptocurrency is legal, obtaining it on exchanges though buying or trading is not. Chinese courts cleared up a few 'grey areas' in September and ruled that Bitcoin ownership is legal, merchants can choose to accept it as a form of payment, and it should be treated legally as property of the owner.

So, it's fair to say it's been a year of steps in the right direction.

This survey shows is if China allows citizens once again participate in the cryptocurrency markets - prepare for an influx of activity - they're ready!

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

China takes a step towards cryptocurrency acceptance, but we need a leap...

Just a few days ago, Chinese courts cleared up a few 'grey areas' - and ruled that Bitcoin ownership is legal, merchants can choose to accept it as a form of payment, and it should be treated legally as property of the owner.

Which is a step in the right direction.

But after reading comments from people in some of the cryptocurrency communities i'm a member of, things along the lines of "this is huge" and other comments expecting this to lead to market movement, I think some clarification is needed.

Still in place is the full ban on participating in cryptocurrency exchanges and ICOs.

So another way to look at this is - currently in China people can possess and spend the Bitcoin they acquired on exchanges before the ban, or through mining, with all the legal protections of someone spending money.

But mined Bitcoin, and Bitcoin purchased long ago simply changing hands within China won't have any effect on the markets as a whole.

This still leaves us with at least a reasonable hope that Bitcoin spending activity officially being legal ignites more demand to be allowed back into the global cryptocurrency markets.  A task much easier if Chinese businesses can present a case for increased profitability through use of cryptocurrencies.

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

Red Alert: China's dominance of Bitcoin mining now a serious threat to the entire network...

Princeton University and Florida International University researchers have teamed up to publish a report titled "The Looming Threat of China: An Analysis of Chinese Influence on Bitcoin".

In the report they say their research shows up to 74% of Bitcoin mining traces back to China - putting the network virtually under Chinese control, as outlined in the papers introduction:

"The decentralized nature of Bitcoin presents unique socioeconomic and political challenges. Operation and maintenance tasks are distributed across a massive number of peers called miners, and because there is no central governing structure, these miners are kept honest by a carefully balanced incentive scheme.

The system is designed so that anyone can contribute by devoting some computing power to mining, but over the last several years, Bitcoin mining has become heavily centralized due to advances in specialized hardware that render commodity hardware obsolete. As a result, miners have congregated into mining pools: consortia of miners who work together and share profits."

As of June 2018, over 80% of Bitcoin mining is performed by six mining pools, and five of those six pools are managed by individuals or organizations located in China.

Attack types are split into 4 categories: Censor specific users or miners, Deanonymize users, Weaken consensus/Destabilize Bitcoin, and Disrupt competing mining operations.

The report then goes into theoretical attacks China could unleash on Bitcoin, adding in their conclusion that China already has the motive to do it:

"As the value and economic utility of Bitcoin have grown, so has the incentive to attack it. We singled out China for analysis because they are the most powerful potential adversary to Bitcoin, and we found that they have a variety of salient motives for attacking the system and a number of mature capabilities, both regulatory and technical, to carry out those attacks."

So how did we get here and what's the solution?  It all comes down to electricity.  The cheaper the power, the more profit incentive there is to mine.  The rest of the developed world, especially western nations conscious of carbon emissions and global warming are just never going to compete with China's cheap, and dirty coal based electricity.

Here in the US we need to welcome mining operations setting up shop like the ones in Washington state - they're profitable because the power comes from a clean and sustainable source - hydroelectric dams. Unfortunately, they've been met with some disapproval from local residents, and the looming threat of local or state government coming in and over-regulating their operations could end with handing over even more mining power to China.

The full report can be read here.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

China is raising their budgets, and stepping up their plans to dominate the blockchain technology sector...

Back in April we published an article on China's massive $1.6 billion budget towards blockchain technology development (read that here).

Their aggressive moves to dominate this emerging tech sector is getting results as well, over the last 2 years the amount of blockchain related patents filed by Chinese companies is more than double the number of patents filed by American companies.

This week there's been 3 new moves step things up even further.

First, China now even wants a piece of America's blockchain industry, with a Chinese Private Equity Firm announcing a $270 million investment in Overstock.com's blockchain subsidiary tZero.

Then on the Chinese domestic front, Bank of China has announced their intentions of increasing their investments in several sectors of emerging technology, including both blockchain and Internet Of Things (IoT).  “Mainly focusing on data sharing, cross-border payment, digital currency, digital bills, etc” says Bank of China’s Chief Information Officer Liu Qiuwan.

Lastly, China's Ministry of Information Technology has said their goal is now to accelerate the implementation of blockchain in government and business in China - they believe the tech is ready to be launched on an 'industrial scale'.

As a guest speaker at the National Expert Forum on Manufacturing Powerful Countries, deputy director of China's Ministry of Information Technology Xin Guobin said:

"Blockchain can make up for the deficiencies of traditional credit system, prevent information tampering and forgery, and save society money. In finance, e-commerce, smart medical care, social security, Internet of Things, energy and other fields, and will have an important impact.”

What's clear is that the race is on between the US and China to determine which will be named the 'leader' in blockchain tech. 

The question that will be answered soon is: which is more powerful? Chinese companies backed by their government? Or Silicon Valley backed by venture capital?  At this point, things are too close to call, while China leads in total patents - quantity doesn't necessarily beat quality in the world of tech.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Chinese police crack down on cryptocurrency gambling...

A Chinese based investigation into illegal gambling on the FIFA World Cup has lead to a large bust, according to local news:

"The network took off more than 20 involved gangs, arrested more than 540 suspects, smashed more than 70 gambling apps and websites, shut down more than 250 online social platform chat groups, and frozen more than 260 million yuan of funds involved in the seizure. A group of servers, computers, mobile phones, bank cards and other items involved."

The local police department behind the operation released a statement saying:

"In recent years, online gambling crimes have developed rapidly, and the forms have emerged in an endless stream. Recently, Maoming police found in their work that some criminals used the online platform to open casinos and declared that they “support the world-wide Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin to recharge, and dozens of countries in the world work simultaneously” to attract a large number of fans to bet. Gamble the ball, while the local police also found that multiple gambling gangs used the online social platform to promote the gambling platform during the World Cup"

Included in the seized assets were $1.5 Million worth of cryptocurrencies, and $750k in bank deposits. 

Authorities say this isn't a one-time operation - adding that online gambling outlets targeting Chinese citizens should expect police to maintain "high pressure" against them.
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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

China's President publicly praises blockchain - is this yet another sign China may soon be returning to the crypto markets?

Chinese President Xi publicly praised blockchain technology today.  At a conference presented by the Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Xi said the technology currently making "breakthroughs" in his opinion were "Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Blockchain" and categorized them as the driving forces behind what he says will be the a "new industrial revolution".

So - could this be yet another sign that China may soon re-open it's doors to the cryptocurrency markets?

Now you may be thinking "just because Xi sees the benefits of Blockchain technology, it doesn't necessarily mean anything favorable to cyptocurrency, Blockchain can be used for lots of things" - and I agree with that.

But - looking at this in conjunction with another story I covered on May 5th, where the Chinese Government researched and ranked cryptocurrencies (link). I think we're seeing some real signs of China warming up to the cryptocurrency world. 

I believe as China watches everyone from major Wall Street firms, to the global banking industry jump in to the cryptocurrency marketplace they need to decide soon if they're in or out - before so many other companies and nations get a head start.  I also believe China knows this too, and is examining their options now.  Be expecting to hear more on this front soon.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

Chinese government study of cryptocurrencies ranks Ethereum #1 of the 28 investigated...

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released the results of a study involving 28 cryptocurrencies.

The methodoligy was explained like this (translated):

"The evaluation of the global public-private chain technology mainly focuses on the basic technical level, application level and innovation ability of the public chain. In terms of sub-indexes, the Styme chain that utilizes the blockchain graphene architecture has the highest score in the basic technical indicators. The NEO whose goal is to use smart contracts to automate the management of digital assets is ranked first in application assessment. The first place in the innovation power index is Bitcoin, which pioneered the application of blockchain technology."

Now people are wondering - why is the Chinese government even conducting studies like this? Could this be a sign that regulations on cryptocurrencies could soon be loosened? Which would be a huge boost to global cryptocurrency markets.

Below is their scoring card - while we haven't been told what specific tests are included in each category, you can see they are scored on 3 features: Technology, Application, Innovation.

My opinion - some results on this list I can understand, but there’s a few surprises that have me questioning the specific underlying factors they analyzed. Regardless, it’s nice seeing China talk about cryptocurrencies besides just saying they’re ‘too risky’ - this is a step in the right direction.


Not listed: the 16th to 28th places - which are Ether Classic, Reverb Chain, Dash, Cloud Storage Chain, Litecoin, Ark, Big Zero Coin, Nano, Bit Cash, Decred, Super cash and new chain.

The Chinese full report can be found here.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

In China, cryptocurrencies remain banned - while the government pours millions into blockchain tech...

China seems to still be figuring out their comfort level with the cryptocurrency world, while making an effort to not get left behind technologically while enforcing a cryptocurrency trading ban.

Blockchain technology itself has grabbed the attention of both the Chinese government and the private Chinese tech industry - they actually lead the world in blockchain related patents already - with over double America's total of 112, with a total of 284 over the last 2 years.

Now a new fund of over $1.6 billion allocated to 'innovative blockchain startups' includes $400 million of Chinese government funds, with the rest from Chinese venture capital firm Tunlan Investments.

Still, no signs of letting up on the cryptocurrency crack down.  For now, China is big on blockchain, and bad on cryptocurrency.

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Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk

Chinese government moves towards eliminating Bitcoin miners completely...

China is home to the largest Bitcoin mining operations in the world.  Electricity, the most expensive part of mining is incredibly cheap there, and the hardware needed to do it is manufactured there as well - so it costs less to buy those "made in China" electronics when you're already there.

People’s Bank of China announced plans this week to begin to "enforce local regulators to monitor and even restrict the power use of miners".

While there's been rumors of such actions before - this time it seems like the real deal.

Bitmain is one of these massive mining operations in China - and they have publicly confirmed a plan to "shift operations" to Singapore as a result of these new regulations.

The good news - China said they will allow miners some time to slowly close down their operations, so it won't seem like someone suddenly pulled the plug.  This means the average Bitcoin user probably won't be effected or even notice it happening.

Miners say they're looking at Iceland, Canada and the USA as top potential spots to relocate as the supply of cheaper renewable energy grows in these nations.

This is the latest in what's been an odd year of Chinese regulation - banning ICO's and some exchanges preceded this latest move.
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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk

Cheap power for China's Bitcoin miners may be coming to an end...


It's been a day full of inaccurate news - it started out with people mistakenly translating an announcement from a Chinese power company as a "ban on Bitcoin miners."

However, now the power company clarified their stance:

"We are a state-owned enterprise, not an administrative branch that has the power to determine whether bitcoin mining is legitimate or not."

The dispute rather is about who gets the power first, and claims that some miners are violating an agreement where local residents have first priority.

Miners in western countries have always complained about the advantage Chinese miners have with low cost power. 

That era may be coming to an end as a "no new power plants" policy has been announced.

This mixed with growing demand for power and development in the country, what felt like an unlimited supply of cheap power, will all need to be accounted for.

As power companies look into current distribution, mines may raise some red flags and be met with some increased costs.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk

Chinese exchanges may come back! With some new rules...

Rumors are swirling after a statement from China's official press agency Xinhua News stating:

 "Virtual currencies have become the top choices of underground economies. We shall adopt ‘0-tolerance policies’ towards crimes hidden underneath and take measures such as record-keeping, licensing, AML processes, real-name, limiting large transactions."

Without reading too much into this short statement, it does seem likely that we could see the return of Chinese exchanges soon. However, specific requirements and whether exchanges will need to go through a licensing application/approval process is yet to be seen.

We'll be watching as this story develops.

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Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk