In communist regimes, it's not unusual to have officials in high position who didn't get there by their competence, but by loyalty.
Hahaha. Yes, in communist regimes as you specified. Meanwhile in the USA gov't everybody is competent and go to their position through competence. As we've seen.
Anyway there's no reason for somebody who can just take a huge bribe on a construction project to learn about pumping & dumping bitcoin. Gov't associated old farts in the west haven't understood btc and keep saying it's a waste of time; hard to believe the Chinese are that much smarter. Also gray markets actually tends to benefit China and any corrupt officials worldwide.
In capitalist regimes, competence always plays a bigger role then in communism regimes, where loyalty to the top officials and to the ideology is valued more. I have lived in both communist and capitalist countries, so I can tell the difference of the two worlds.
West understands BTC perfectly well, and that's why it doesn't care. It's not a quality currency because it can't even give itself value without USD, not even mentioning it's inability for price stability. It's just a system to transfer USD at best, so those who want USD to rule, don't really have anything to worry about.
If you must see an adversarial angle here then how about this: at first China/PBC thought bitcoin is an oppositional force to dollar dominance and encouraged it. Then they realized most bitcoin are owned by westerners, and pumping it actually is profit to the west more than it is to the Chinese. So now it's discouraged.
Erhm... did you just rephrase a part of my previous post and present it as something different?
Anyway I for one am buying now that it's low. Let whoever thinks like Buffett that btc has no intrinsic value be left behind.
You go ahead and buy those "low priced coins". I for instance, think that there is no such thing as a low price in the general perspective. There is only the price that is relative to the current situation.
The China pump in November, took bitcoin to these heights on a presumption, that bitcoin will soon get institutional backing from China. This didn't happen. Now, the plan B is to get institutional funding from Wall Street. If they are able to pull this through, then the current price is low indeed. If not, then the current price is too high, not too low. I personally don't have much faith in Wall Street funding, because the history of bitcoin is too tainted and the crew that is lobbying bitcoin in Wall Street, doesn't exactly include the sharpest fellows. Barry Silbert tried to promote bitcoin by promising another
bubble ffs.
So, I'll just wait and see what happens. If the improbable outcome happens and bitcoin will get institutional funding, then I'll buy some, and not bitcoin but probably a bunch of low priced well-built altcoins. Otherwise, there are always better investment opportunities, that don't have to be supported by weak presumptions.