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It Seems China is Shutting Down its Blockchain Economy

posted by janrinok on Sunday September 17 2017, @03:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the man-wants-his-cut dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow5743

When the Chinese government announced a ban on initial coin offerings last week, it looked like an attempt to rein in the speculative excesses of the cryptocurrency economy. But now it seems like it might have been the start of something more ambitious: a coordinated campaign to shut down use of cryptocurrency in the Middle Kingdom.

The full extent of the Chinese crackdown isn't clear yet, in part because key decisions have only been communicated privately to Chinese Bitcoin exchanges. But a couple of Bitcoin exchanges have now announced that they are shutting down. And leaked documents suggest that the rest will be required to do so before the end of the month. Chinese users will be given a chance to withdraw their funds before the exchanges shut down.

"BTCChina encourages customers to withdraw their funds as quickly as possible," one of the exchanges wrote in a Friday tweet. "Customers can withdraw their funds whenever they want."

Bitcoin has always been something of an awkward fit for China, which strictly regulates financial markets and limits the flow of funds overseas. Chinese officials have apparently concluded that Bitcoin has become too popular as a way to circumvent those regulations.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/china-may-be-getting-ready-to-ban-bitcoin/

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @04:16PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @04:16PM (#569415)

    Is that China just wants to know who is doing what with the money, same as ISP's requiring real ID's etc.
    Once the government comes up with some rules so they can track who is buying/selling bitcoins they will authorise exchanges to reopen.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 18 2017, @02:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 18 2017, @02:11AM (#569593)

    The reason Bitcoin is so popular in China is that China has draconian currency control measures. Citizens are not allowed to take more than 20,000 yuan (~$3,050) outside of the country.

    Of course that's hardly enough money to do much of anything, so everybody violates it - and Bitcoin has been one of the most effective ways of doing so. The point being is that if China somehow manages to begin to be able to physically track bitcoin exchanges, then it loses its utility.