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China Bitcoin Businesses

China Wants To Ban Bitcoin Mining 99

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
China's state planner wants to eliminate bitcoin mining in the country, according to a draft list of industrial activities the agency is seeking to stop in a sign of growing government pressure on the cryptocurrency sector. From a report: China is the world's largest market for computer hardware designed to mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, even though such activities previously fell under a regulatory grey area. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday it was seeking public opinions on a revised list of industries it wants to encourage, restrict or eliminate. The list was first published in 2011. The draft for a revised list added cryptocurrency mining, including that of bitcoin, to more than 450 activities the NDRC said should be phased out as they did not adhere to relevant laws and regulations, were unsafe, wasted resources or polluted the environment. It did not stipulate a target date or plan for how to eliminate bitcoin mining, meaning that such activities should be phased out immediately, the document said. The public has until May 7 to comment on the draft.
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China Wants To Ban Bitcoin Mining More

China Wants To Ban Bitcoin Mining

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  • Bitcoin mining has pushed the development of hardware in china to smaller and smaller feature sizes, even more than GPUs and CPUs. They are shooting themselves in the feet and allowing the next generation of hardware to be run (and eventually designed) elsewhere. This is China giving up the lead in high tech for a few years - we better take this chance and run with it, we probably won't get another chance like this.

    • Re:Opportunity for hardware development elsewhere (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tomhath ( 637240 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:01PM (#58410652)
      The Chinese government recognized that the bitcoin fad is over. Time to move on.

      • Re:Opportunity for hardware development elsewhere (Score:5, Interesting)

        by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @02:28PM (#58410788)
        I think what they realized was that the only reason so many people in China were doing it was as a means of moving wealth outside of the country, which China wants to clamp down on since it limits their control. Like anything else, the Chinese government doesn't care too much as long as it doesn't challenge their authority.
      • People have been saying this for 10 years. And yet, it is more stable now than ever. And even in it's bigest crash ever, it did not lose more than a few months of value. With a 10 year track record of being wrong, how long are you going to stick with this?
  • "China Wants To Ban Bitcoin Mining, Launch Its Own Fiat-backed Token Currency"

  • If China bans bitcoin mining, how will they then prop up North Korea?

  • The entire purpose of cryptocurrency is to undermine the state. There is literally no other value add to the blockchainist (pseudo) decentralization model of electronic currency.

    the most impressive feat of Bitcoin is that it's managed to use a misdirection story about 'technology' (plus some good old fashioned corruption) to prevent china - of all nations - from recognizing its true and intended purpose for so long.

    • Bitcoin not decentralized, has not been for years (Score:4, Insightful)

      by perpenso ( 1613749 ) on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @03:07PM (#58411014)

      The entire purpose of cryptocurrency is to undermine the state. There is literally no other value add to the blockchainist (pseudo) decentralization model of electronic currency.

      Actually, bitcoin has undermine itself.

      Bitcoin is not decentralized and has not been for years. The underlying theory of bitcoin is that a diverse and decentralized population of users maintain the blockchain. Bitcoin has neither diversity nor decentralization. Bitcoin is not diverse as it is dominated by the manufacturers and owners of expensive and specialized mining hardware, ASICs. Bitcoin is not decentralized as 70%+ of the ASIC miners are in a single country, China, dependent upon inexpensive government control power. Bitcoin has deviated from its core design that was supposed to ensure security.

      • yes, that's what the (pseudo) is there to indicate

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by epine ( 68316 )

        The underlying premise of bitcoin is that a diverse and decentralized population of users maintain the blockchain.

        FTFY.

        The theory of Bitcoin is much narrower:
        * if you achieve diverse and decentralized in the real world, you're in a good place
        * mechanisms exist within Bitcoin to encourage (but not guarantee) this outcome

        Unpacking Suitcase Words [alexvermeer.com] — 2009

        In The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky discusses suitcase words—words that contain a variety of meanings packed into them, such as conscience, emotio

  • Ah, China! Remember these are the people that once banned the letter "N"? Maybe they'll back off. Bitcoin is just a fun computer game you can play with your kids. It's a great way to learn about money.

  • It's rare to see, but in this case the Chinese government is doing something right.

    At this stage the only difference these mining rigs are making to the world is making it warmer.

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