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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, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @03:55PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @03:55PM (#569406)

    Few years ago we had the same situation, that China banned bitcoin and related currencies (price crashed due to all the FUD). Now they do it again? For how long?

    My guess is that Chinese in good positions want to have this FUD again to buy in at lower prices.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @04:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @04:12PM (#569414)

    Yes, how many times are they going to do this? This is why when they say "China will ban gas cars by 2040", etc it is difficult to take seriously. Maybe the word being translated as "ban" has a different meaning than in English?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @04:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @04:48PM (#569425)

    I guess its possible for for a few key individuals to influence public policy for their own benefit, but otherwise FUD to drive prices down seems pretty ridiculous for the entire Chinese government. Cracking down on individuals using BTC to circumvent rules seems MUCH more likely.