What if bitcoin is regulated in China?

[jaberwock]

What kind of regulations?

There are some that don't allow exchange of BTC for goods and limit how many BTC can be transferred to BTC exchanges, what more now?

[Wilhelmus]

Something that could be terrifying would be if they agree to start an "official" state-controled cryptocurrency. With all the money that this group of people have, they could kill Bitcoin and even Ethereum !

Can you please explain how exactly any state-controled cryptocurrency may put other cryptocurrencies in danger? Let's say Russia will start producing its own dollars, will this put U.S. dollar in danger?

But if they fully legalize Bitcoin, price will surely increase .

Bitcoin doesn't need no "full legalization". It just needs less restrictions and regulations.

If they do so, Chinese state could then make illegal any other cryptocurrency. Every Chinese exchange would closed and Bitcoin volume would fall, then the price would follow him. A lot of mines would also be closed. This could be benefical to us since difficulty would drop a lot. We would have more Bitcoins but worth cheaper, just like at the beginning. This scenario is a bit extreme, but this could happen in a less-intense way.

[gentlemand]

There is no known large holder there.

I've seen interviews with various Chinese mine operators. A few are keeping significant amounts and considering the quantities they mine that must add up to plenty. I guess they're sensible enough to not draw attention to themselves unlike some of the Western big shots.

[n2004al]

Something that could be terrifying would be if they agree to start an "official" state-controled cryptocurrency. With all the money that this group of people have, they could kill Bitcoin and even Ethereum !

Can you please explain how exactly any state-controled cryptocurrency may put other cryptocurrencies in danger? Let's say Russia will start producing its own dollars, will this put U.S. dollar in danger?

But if they fully legalize Bitcoin, price will surely increase .

Bitcoin doesn't need no "full legalization". It just needs less restrictions and regulations.

What does it mean "less restrictions and regulations" and where is the difference between the "full legalization" and the "less restrictions and regulations"?
I'm curious to know these detailed concepts and understand the difference between those. Because to me, to tell the truth, seems without meanings all this game with words.

To not tell here that the regulation on itself can be very different from country to country. So can be with "more restrictions" or "less restrictions" being in the same time "full regulation" and "full legalization".

[ashour]

I think that bitcoin regulation in china would be a good step into bitcoin adoption in china. With a safe regulation people will take bitcoin more serious.

[ranochigo]

...

With China controlling over 50% of current hashing power, I wonder if there are LARGE Bitcoin holders there.

The uber-rich of China could buy up a lot of Chinese-mined BTC and fairly soon could have a lot of easy to transfer funds (to buy real assets in the West for example).

Anybody know of there are heavy hitters among BTC owners who are Chinese?

I haven't heard of any Chinese that controls a huge amount of BTC.

Your theory could make sense in a way. Miners in China would be quite money minded and sell their BTC immediately after mining. However, the costs of banking fees could be too high and they would find someone willing to buy it at a good rate and they don't have to worry about the fees. Some miners would be keeping a portion of BTC after factoring the labor costs and electrical costs though.

[TTMNewsMJ]

It will be a good news.
We all know that China is a big country.
Most chinese people will understand what bitcoin is.

[Raimonn]

Any Bitcoin regulation in China will afect Bitcoin. There are a lot of people in china, if govern permits and regulates uses of Bitcoin a lot of people will know about bitcoin and price could increse. In the other hand, if china government regulates against bitcoin, it could make that chinese bitcoin users sell it and prices could decrease.

[tom555]

i just worry about that regulation will follow by other country,and make some problem about legalizm.

[Kprawn]

Worst case scenario... They can re-define it as a commodity and ban it from being used as a currency. We have been seeing this in other countries too and it's not good. The

regulation will only happen if it is used to bypass laws or to avoid taxes. The governments wants a piece of the action {taxes} and they want to be in control. If you threaten that,

you will see lots of regulation. Bitcoin by nature have opportunities for people to do both... Let's just hope the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for them.  

[mayax]

Bitcoin exchangers are already banned in China and the banks are not allowed to accept firms that are related with Bitcoin.

[RKing]

Bitcoin exchangers are already banned in China and the banks are not allowed to accept firms that are related with Bitcoin.

So how do the exchanges work in China. There are still many trading there. The volume is quite large. More than 50% of world's total volume.

[Amph]

Bitcoin exchangers are already banned in China and the banks are not allowed to accept firms that are related with Bitcoin.

So how do the exchanges work in China. There are still trading there.

because what he have said, it's not true, there were some heavy restriction in the past, because the government was thinking that there were a possibili for the cny to suffer a devaluation

but then it was permitted, because presumably, they could earn profit from those eexchange

[mayax]

Bitcoin exchangers are already banned in China and the banks are not allowed to accept firms that are related with Bitcoin.

So how do the exchanges work in China. There are still trading there.

because what he have said, it's not true, there were some heavy restriction in the past, because the government was thinking that there were a possibili for the cny to suffer a devaluation

but then it was permitted, because presumably, they could earn profit from those eexchange

Please show me the official links where it's saying that the Chinesse banks and exchangers can deal with Bitcoin.

Banking institutions and employees are banned from engaging in bitcoin business through banking, as well as servicing or doing business with the bitcoin industry

So, individuals can trade bitcoin but not the companies.

Yes, there illegal tradings. What's so hard to understand that most of the Chinese exchangers are doing illegal exchanges

[investspot]

Isn't it already regulated?    They block many bitcoin related websites.

They block google, youtube, facebook, twitter and so many ...

[pereira4]

Whichever governments want to extract the greatest percent of GDP growth (collect the most tax dollars) for their country from this new technological revolution will be the first ones who give regulatory clarification and those with the least legal regulations will get an additional GDP boost.

Just like how the countries that industrialized first had a GDP growth advantage over those who industrialized last. The early adopters get the most benefit.  Just as the early bitcoin adopters did better than the rest of us late to the party Rip Van Winkles, the early Countries who adopt crypto will get much more benefit than those who are late to the party.  

The early bird gets the worm, and it looks like China is hungry.  The sun rises in the east after all it seems.

They will first need to find a way to enforce the taxes.. It will be very difficult in the early days to keep track of bitcoin and wether taxes are being paid.

I don't see the early countries benefitting more in this way. It will probably be those sitting on the sidelines, first creating a method to extract taxes, that will profit.

I still fail to see how you "regulate Bitcoin" so to speak. How in hell will you keep track of all of it? And i don't see how it would be less difficult after the early days. The more people using it, the more of a nightmare it will be, but the main thing is anonymity being increased overtime as the software gets better.

[gentlemand]

It's near impossible to impose regulations on ethereal, virtual commodities that are transmitted via a peer to peer protocol... (See the music industry VS illegal file sharing)

Most people require fiat interaction somewhere along the way and that's where they can stick all the regulation they like in. If fiat gateways were strangled it could still continue but would lose a humongous amount of utility. Not many folks are all crypto.

[ranochigo]

Bitcoin exchangers are already banned in China and the banks are not allowed to accept firms that are related with Bitcoin.

Banks were barred from dealing with Bitcoin transactions, BTCChina still operates as they have realised that they are still able to trade but banks were not allowed to be or setup a Bitcoin business[1].

[1] http://www.coindesk.com/btc-china-accepting-bank-deposits/

[bitgolden]

Bitcoin exchangers are already banned in China and the banks are not allowed to accept firms that are related with Bitcoin.

Banks were barred from dealing with Bitcoin transactions, BTCChina still operates as they have realised that they are still able to trade but banks were not allowed to be or setup a Bitcoin business[1].

[1] http://www.coindesk.com/btc-china-accepting-bank-deposits/

I do not understand how it's possible to continue their operations for BTCChina without the help of bank accounts to handle fiat against the bitcoins.
China has more hash power as per mining percentage data. It will make china to posses more bitcoins. So, if bitcoin get regulated in china, that would boost to value appreciation over all.

[OROBTC]

It's near impossible to impose regulations on ethereal, virtual commodities that are transmitted via a peer to peer protocol... (See the music industry VS illegal file sharing)

Most people require fiat interaction somewhere along the way and that's where they can stick all the regulation they like in. If fiat gateways were strangled it could still continue but would lose a humongous amount of utility. Not many folks are all crypto.

^^^ This.

If regulators were to shut off the fiat gateways (converting BTC to/from cash), that would hit Bitcoin very hard.  At least in the BTC markets for real (physical) goods.  OK, for music files, etc., BTC would appear to work fine.

Even the gold dealers who take BTC as payment convert their crypto to cash.  Would these dealers sell gold for BTC without the easy option to turn it into cash? 

Not likely.