Reports continue to emerge that suggest China will place a squeeze on bitcoin miners as part of its wider crackdown on cryptocurrency trading. As reported, Chinese regulators have steadily closed the net around the country’s cryptocurrency ecosystem. The saga began when the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) ruled that initial coin offerings (ICOs) were illegal. Within a week, bitcoin exchanges began to announce their “voluntary” closures, citing the ICO ruling. Exchange shareholders and executives have allegedly been warned not to leave the country while investigators “clean-up” the now-illegal crypto marketplace. Finally, reports surfaced indicating that Beijing officials have told peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading platforms to shut down their services.
With its foot now firmly planted on the neck of China’s bitcoin trading infrastructure, rumors have begun to emerge that indicate regulators will move against the Chinese cryptocurrency mining industry, which accounts for about 65% of the total bitcoin network hashrate.
To wit, Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, tweeted that his contacts have told him that “we haven’t seen the worst yet.” He suggested that “the most conservative outcome” would be a blanket ban on peer-to-peer trading, which would still indirectly kill the Chinese mining industry since companies would not have an outlet to trade their BTC for fiat currency. If the government takes a more aggressive stance, however, he warned that China could seize mining facilities and equipment. He also conveyed rumors that some bitcoin exchange executives could face “extreme punishment” for investing customer funds without their consent.
More of this here...I would be happy if soon the Chinese government would eventually stop all the Bitcoin mining operations within its jurisdiction. I am sure that this can have some downward effect con Bitcoin's value but moving from China can be good for Bitcoin in the long-term. It is time that we spread the mining operations all over the world and we are hoping that this news and more can encourage more and more players from other countries.
This can indeed be bad news for miners located in China due to cheap electricity and labor but the government in there, at least for now, is not sharing the same excitement with them and may eventually use its banning power to kick the Bitcoin mining out of the country.
