Bitcoin Forum

Taobao, often known as eBay of China has updated their policy banning Cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and other virtual currency-related services. Taobao is a subsidiary of Chinese eCommerce Giant Alibaba set up in 2003 where individuals and small business can list items for sale within China.

Taobao previously had a ban on the sale of Cryptocurrency Miners and offering Mining Tutorials. In addition to that, they have now banned any product or service that makes use of the Blockchain. The new rule prohibits Cryptocurrency related services which include ICO Consultancy, White Paper Writing Services, smart contract deployment services and other crypto related technical services. This also prohibits the sale of blockchain based virtual assets like CryptoKitties and their numerous clones. These new rules will be valid from April 17th.

Taobao has cited recent bans from People’s Bank of China behind the crackdown. In September last year, PBoC banned all ICOs and early this year, they banned Cryptocurrencies itself. Though there is no ban on mining yet, most miners are looking to move their services outside the country.

Taobao considers breaking these new rules as serious violations and has a penalty system in place to penalize those who fail to follow. After PBoC banned ICOs last year, most of the advertisers have been able to circumvent this ban by changing the spellings. For example, they write ICO as IC0 where they change the ‘O’ to ‘0’(zero).

Though China has been extremely hostile towards Cryptocurrencies, most of the traders are optimistic about a change in stance in the coming months. In fact, PBoC’s new head Yi Gang said “Bitcoin is a currency that provides freedom to anyone that uses it,” and emphasized that the cryptocurrency is transparent.

Though Taobao has banned all Blockchain related services, there is no ban on Blockchain in China. In fact, the Chinese government has been extremely optimistic of Blockchain technology. A $1 Billion Blockchain fund was just launched which is backed by the government to invest in Blockchain startups. Also, PBoC filed the most number of Blockchain patents in 2017.

https://www.ccn.com/alibaba-subsidiary-taobao-bans-listing-of-cryptocurrency-and-ico-services/

Surely because the Alibaba owner has earlier stated it does not understand the concept of Bitcoin as of the last time. He even signified how dangerous it is for people to put their funds into. Naturally, a subsidiary like Taobao would follow. It is just logical, although I must admit I did not see the same coming for such odd reasons.

This just reminds me that in business, you would always go for something that suits your interests regardless if the matter is at par with your life principles- and this, my friends, happens all the time. Do not hate me on this. Just my two cents.

Given that the cryptocurrency market has already been strangulated in China, I don’t think Taobao’s decision will have a material impact. Even if the companies themselves had taken no action again cryptocurrencies, the government would have nudged them to do so, sooner or later.

If they are "Ebay of China" then selling or cryptocurrency services or services in general is not right. The real Ebay for instance only allows you to list real goods and not services, or even products that intend to lead customers to your real business (eg. MLM). Pulling out ICOs and its related services is their right to do as their reputation is on the line if they allowed a listing of a potential scam ICO or service. Handling with real goods is their only option just like how ebay use to handle things.

Taobao's probably just following suit after worries over political backlash because of the unclear nature of Bitcoin and ICO's industry / market in China. I believe sellers of Blockchain, smart contract and white paper writing services will usually move to other freelancing platforms that have no restrictions. There are decentralized platforms available which need to pick up user base like OpenBazzar which could host as a great platform for these Chinese sellers / buyers. My only concern is the gradual negativity of cryptocurrencies has lead to them exclusing Blockchain as well? Blockchain based services can fund startups that rely on the technology to improve their businesses and operations. If there's a need for a private blockchain service and that was earlier being sold on Taobao, that'd be unfortunate.