Bitcoin in China

[Nefario]

I'm in China, English teacher, slow/poorish Ruby webdev programmer.

I'm wondering what can I do here to make use of the BTC I have and to earn some BTC?

I know that Chinese currency (RMB) is not traded on the markets (internationally at least). Is there something that I can do to earn BTC?

Idea's appreciated.

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[Timo Y]

a straight-forward way to earn a few Bitcoins is to research Bitcoin related topics and contribute to the bitcoin wiki:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin:Contributors_Award

[Cryptoman]

How about doing English/Chinese translations?  Tell everyone you know about Bitcoin; I would love to see it really take off in China.

[kiba]

Are you in mainland China, or Hong Kong, or Taiwan?

[fabianhjr]

If there is no exchange in China open one NOW. Then just generate some Bitcoins and exchange them with a small fee like 2-5% + 0.5 BTC. You can make some money now that you are at it.

Also, there are many pledges and work you can do to earn Bitcoins. There is an app dev pledge for around 1700 BTC I believe. Good to have you around. :-)

[genjix]

Do you live near Shandong province? If so maybe we can work out something... PM me.

[Nefario]

Are you in mainland China, or Hong Kong, or Taiwan?

Mainland China

forever: Thanks I didn't know about the wiki,it's quite nice. It seems there are a LOT of bitcoin sites and services popping up(especially since I looked last) and it's not I suppose too easy to find out whats happening, it's a little all over the place.

Sure I will be spreading the word (the more people use BTC the more it's worth to everyone who uses it) but there must be something specifically usefull about me being in China. Maybe not but it would be nice.

[kiba]

I imagine bitcoin will be banned much earlier in China than in the US. Bitcoin is a subversive currency that will anger all the world powers.

[Nefario]

I imagine bitcoin will be banned much earlier in China than in the US. Bitcoin is a subversive currency that will anger all the world powers.

We have an IM client/network here called QQ, by numbers I think it is the most popular IM network in the world, but it is mostly based in China (it is owned by TenCent, a Chinese company). You could by QQ coins which could be used to buy items for your or other persons QQ avatars. They became so popular that ordinary people were begining to accept them as currency for some goods (mostly young people). It became so popular that the government banned the use of QQ coins as a trading coin, that is to buy things outside the QQ network.

BTC will remain ignored by the government here until it becomes popular, and then it will be banned. All bitcoin websites and services will be blocked. Simply searching for the word may have your internet connection cut off for a few minutes. For those who have the bitcoin client installed they will be unable to connect to the BTC network as the IRC server that the client gets the network nodes IP's will be blocked.

This is the same problem facing Tor.

[caveden]

This is the same problem facing Tor.

How? They are identifying and blocking each Tor relay?

[fabianhjr]

Yes they are. :/

[Nefario]

This is the same problem facing Tor.

How? They are identifying and blocking each Tor relay?

Exactly, the government here has a lot of manpower at its disposal. To get the ip of a Tor relay it need only send an email to bridges@torproject.org with the subject "get bridges". The torproject will then reply will the ip address of 3 bridges.

It will only reply once every 24hours and the email must be from GMail. But it only takes a 10 man team (including one script writer) a week to set up enough GMail email accounts and automate the process so that the majority of bridge node ip addresses can be harvested. Preventing most people from using Tor from within China.

[BioMike]

From the way you describe how your government seems to block TOR I would think there would be more easy ways to do that. On the other hand, they don't seem to just block encrypted content. So, having 2 hosts (one in China, one outside) creating an encrypted tunnel and let bitcoin traffic going through that solves the bitcoin network issues (as long as they don't know what the two hosts are exchanging you don't raise any flag). You might want to have a few of these tunnels to prevent network splits in case one of the hosts goes down.

On the other side, things to spend the bitcoins on... that is a different thing. I think however that it doesn't relate to the QQ coins (I have Chinese colleagues seen using QQ and always wondered what it was), mainly because bitcoin isn't limited to China (the Chinese government hasn't any control about internet outside China) and as Bitcoin keeps growing, it becomes harder and more expensive for them to block it.

[Cryptoman]

Anonygas, I created a project for you to consider:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2505.0

[jgarzik]

We definitely need a BTC/RMB exchange.  Makes me wish there was open source exchange software...

[kiba]

We definitely need a BTC/RMB exchange.  Makes me wish there was open source exchange software...

I would work on one, if there were 5000 BTC pledged. 

But I can't take on new projects at this time. I have bitpredict to finish, after all.

[genjix]

We definitely need a BTC/RMB exchange.  Makes me wish there was open source exchange software...

What are the specifications for this kind of thing? Doesn't seem hard to create the software.

Maybe there should be a site for people to register as escrows that allow people to do exchanges. Kind of like the facebook of mtgox's.

I'd be willing to write this (should be easy) and put the code out there. Could even be hosted by MagicalTux (he's willing).

When each person registers, the server generates them a random string ID which is used for their accounts. They can then choose to trade with someone using any escrow of their choosing.

However, how would you hook-up your own native currency? Is the format too restrictive? Maybe it's just better to provide exchange software and let others use it.

[jgarzik]

We definitely need a BTC/RMB exchange.  Makes me wish there was open source exchange software...

What are the specifications for this kind of thing? Doesn't seem hard to create the software.

This is intentionally a bare minimum requirements list, not a "wish list" of features.

• per-user account system (username, password, all the standard stuff)
• maintains internal, double-entry accounting ledger of per-user accounts, where each transaction stores $Amount and $Currency
• supports calling a Web API via a plugin, to receive deposits in $Currency
• supports calling a Web API via a plugin, to send withdrawals in $Currency
• supports manual administrative entries (journal debits and credits)
• supports one or more order books of 'bid' and 'ask' prices, one per currency pair
• supports entry of new orders, and cancellation of existing orders.  when a new order is entered, attempt to fill order from existing order book entries.
• Consider your regulatory environment.  For example, it seems like limiting withdrawals to $1000/day for US citizens aligns with FinCEN regulatory requirements.

[Nefario]

We definitely need a BTC/RMB exchange.  Makes me wish there was open source exchange software...

What are the specifications for this kind of thing? Doesn't seem hard to create the software.

Maybe there should be a site for people to register as escrows that allow people to do exchanges. Kind of like the facebook of mtgox's.

I'd be willing to write this (should be easy) and put the code out there. Could even be hosted by MagicalTux (he's willing).

When each person registers, the server generates them a random string ID which is used for their accounts. They can then choose to trade with someone using any escrow of their choosing.

However, how would you hook-up your own native currency? Is the format too restrictive? Maybe it's just better to provide exchange software and let others use it.

There are some currency exchange applications available but seem unsuported and out of date. Mostly for LETS type systems.

But this is not the problem, how is the RMB given to the purchaser? How can they use their RMB that they have bought with BTC? How can they get it? And how can someone who wishes to purchase BTC get their RMB to the exchanger?

This kind of system is entirely illegal here, even electronically there is no way to transfer RMB out of the country. From account to account (in China) you must use UnionPay, it is the only interbank transfer service in China. For online processing you must use ChinaPay.

BTC coming in is no difficult problem, but how to redeem your exchange, ok you know you have RMB, held for you in China, what then?

Oh! An idea! A purchasing service! That would also be needed.

I need to state again that this system would be totally illegal here, if it were to begin it would need to be in the black market. Otherwise it cannot operate. I think this is possible though if the trading/exchange system was available over i2p.

[FreeMoney]

QQ/BTC exchange site could be made?

Tor bridges sold for BTC so china gov has to mine?