AGAIN: China says it wants to eliminate bitcoin mining

[AGD]

So China is playing the environment card now. Didn't they think about changing to renewables? Sure they didn't.
Possible that Bitcoin is a problem for the Yuan? Just asking ... 


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-cryptocurrency/china-says-it-wants-to-eliminate-bitcoin-mining-idUSKCN1RL0C4

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s state planner wants to ban bitcoin mining, according to a draft list of industrial activities the agency is seeking to stop in a sign of growing government pressure on the cryptocurrency sector.
A small toy figure is seen on representations of the Bitcoin virtual currency in this illustration picture, December 26, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

China is the world’s largest market for computer hardware designed to mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, even though such activities previously fell under a regulatory grey area.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday it was seeking public opinions on a revised list of industries it wants to encourage, restrict or eliminate. The list was first published in 2011.

The draft for a revised list added cryptocurrency mining, including that of bitcoin, to over 450 activities the NDRC said should be phased out as they did not adhere to relevant laws and regulations, were unsafe, wasted resources or polluted the environment.

It did not stipulate a target date or plan for how to eliminate bitcoin mining, meaning that such activities should be phased out immediately, the document said. The public has until May 7 to comment on the draft.

State-owned newspaper Securities Times said on Tuesday that the draft list “distinctly reflects the attitude of the country’s industrial policy” towards the cryptocurrency industry.

Last week, the price of bitcoin soared nearly 20 percent in its best day since the height of the 2017 bubble, and breaking $5,000 for the first time since mid-November, though analysts and traders admitted that they were puzzled by the surge.

On Tuesday, bitcoin was trading at $5,190.

The cryptocurrency sector has been under heavy scrutiny in China since 2017, when regulators started to ban initial coin offerings and shut local cryptocurrency trading exchanges.

China also began to limit cryptocurrency mining, forcing many firms - among them some of the world’s largest - to find bases elsewhere.

Chinese companies are also among the biggest manufacturers of bitcoin mining gear, and last year three filed for initial public offerings in Hong Kong, looking to raise billions of dollars.

However, the two largest, Bitmain Technologies, the world’s largest manufacturer of bitcoin mining gear, and Canaan Inc, have since let their applications lapse.

People familiar with the deals said that Hong Kong regulators had many questions about the companies’ business models and prospects.

According to Canaan’s IPO prospectus filed last year, sales of blockchain hardware primarily for crypto currency mining in China were worth 8.7 billion yuan ($1.30 billion) in 2017, 45 percent of global sales by value.

The prospectus forecasts that sales in China would rise to 35.6 billion yuan by 2020.

[noobcakescc]

Sure, Bitcoin/Crypto is a threat to all government regulated fiat currencies (yuan included), but it's still a very long way from actually threatening their model.

Won't be surprised if China actually pulls the plug on the miners though, since it doesn't bring about any economic benefits for China themselves at all. And they're always striving to control capital outflow and Bitcoin is arguably one of the tools that hampers their efforts.

If environment is an issue, I am of the opinion that they probably have bigger problems that they can tackle and it can bring about better benefits for much less effort (factories?)

[Odessit_ya]

All governments in the world treat negatively cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin as alpha-currency, they are afraid of financial capital leaving the country's budget in the shade.
My opinion is that China is simply taking another step towards Bitcoin legalization, there can be no complete denial ...

[alisafidel58]

I think they are threatened with bitcoin and decided to fight a hole to ban it. There are far more worts industrial factory in China that produce emissions. Bitcoin mining factory doesn't produce emissions but only needs power supply just like any other factory in China.

This is the 2nd time (If my memory serves me right) that they are planning to ban bitcoin miners in China.

[pinoycash]

Whenever Bitcoin price starting to rally china always release a news statement that they will ban anything about bitcoin or cryptocurrency.

During the 2017 bull how many bans and restriction they announce and it didn't stop the bull from raging the market.

[mk4]

"polluted the environment" suuure China. That's definitely the reason.. They sure do care about the environment a lot.



https://www.forbes.com/sites/hannahleung/2018/04/21/five-asian-countries-dump-more-plastic-than-anyone-else-combined-how-you-can-help/#298cc9521234

[figmentofmyass]

well it's just a draft.....and it looks like the commission is seeking public comment on the list. things like this can change in the blink of an eye in china. the market didn't seem to react negatively to the rumors, which gives some hope that this isn't a serious threat.

weren't there threats about banning mining a couple years back? i'm guessing larger miners have been planning for this contingency for quite a long time now. bitmain and others have been setting up overseas facilities for years. fortunately, the chinese government is less and less relevant as bitcoin achieves increasing global adoption and i doubt they want to hamper the miner production export industry either.

[KennyR]

Bitcoin is much depended on the mining process which is the backbone for the cryptocurrency network. Already China has revealed similar statements in the past describing its stand on the bitcoin related activities. Now once again some news has come stating China's argument on ban of mining mentioning pollution and the electricity consumption. As of now some form of renewable energy source is the one that can help us with long term mining.

[jakelyson]

There will always be concern on bitcoin mining because it consumes a lot of power. But China banning them is old news. They have tried this before but I do not think they will ever succeed. And if they do, there are  lots of countries with cheaper cost of mining.

[Bitinity]

It is still a plan but of course it may affect bitcoin in general like what happened some years ago when there was a fake news of bitcoin bans that made the bitcoin price dropped.
Hope this news wont give a significant effect of the current market condition as we have just started to boost up after long time of stable price.

[Beerwizzard]

Mining does not have any significant effect on nature as greens always want us to think. Mass production of some plastic shit is dumping more waste than producing electricity for mining. Also, nuclear energy is very cheap and nuclear energy will still be used for at least 50 years or even more. So BTC mining does not cause any significant amount of pollution and at the same time no one is lacking electricity because of it.

[poptok1]

Mining does not have any significant effect on nature as greens always want us to think. Mass production of some plastic shit is dumping more waste than producing electricity for mining. Also, nuclear energy is very cheap and nuclear energy will still be used for at least 50 years or even more. So BTC mining does not cause any significant amount of pollution and at the same time no one is lacking electricity because of it.

I also think the same way, one more thing I could add is the argument of wasted potential.
Imagine that all mining rigs are magically turned off tomorrow. Does the amount of energy produced by the power plants is also reduced adequately? Answer is no. They would still produce at the same level. Nothing would be changed accept maybe the frequency that was reduced from 50hz to 49.8 a year ago. Nuclear power plants are designed with specific power output in mind, they simply can't work correctly when there is no enough consumption. As we are unable to store power, everything of the excess that was produced and unused is truly wasted. So in fact bitcoin mining helps to preserve electricity market and utilize this, what would be otherwise pointless trash.

[Haunebu]

Honestly, why do people care so much about what China feels about the cryptocurrency market? They clearly do not like Bitcoin and the crypto market which is why I do not find this news surprising to say the least.

Values will fluctuate, but the cryptocurrency market is here to stay no matter what any country feels about it.

[creeps]

Honestly, why do people care so much about what China feels about the cryptocurrency market? They clearly do not like Bitcoin and the crypto market which is why I do not find this news surprising to say the least.

Values will fluctuate, but the cryptocurrency market is here to stay no matter what any country feels about it.

China is just another country who hates cryptos not much but I think if its USA, the story will be more different, the price will not just fluctuate but it will collapse I guess. Well, I believe every country right now is important for the adoption, but I know there are some countries will do like this, to eliminate cryptocurrency I just hope that they will not succeed on that and the time will come for them to adopt it. Cryptocurrency is good enough to make people more effective and efficient on using this technology.

[Ailmand]

We've been hearing this kind of news from China for a long time. If they wanted to ban it they could've done it a long time ago. They always want to make a scene in crypto sphere by making some such news and after a month or two they will resume with crypto. People are getting sick and tired hearing such news from China, so sick that they start ignoring it.

[dothebeats]

Playing the environment card from one of the world's largest contributors of carbon emissions, I don't think the word "environmentalists" and "China" go together. Perhaps there are more underlying reasons as to why they want to ban bitcoin mining all in all. If ever this happened, Mongolia is just near China, and Japan, too. There's also Russia which has a somewhat lighter reception and policies regarding bitcoin mining. I guess it's also about time for the miners to disperse off of China and relocate somewhere else.

This is not about China being 'green' all of a sudden. This is surely about something else.

[squatter]

Honestly, why do people care so much about what China feels about the cryptocurrency market? They clearly do not like Bitcoin and the crypto market which is why I do not find this news surprising to say the least.

China is home to the largest mining gear manufacturers, mining pools and purportedly hash rate. Adverse actions from the Chinese government could have significant and sudden effects on the mining sector, which could cause panic in the market. I don't think this would be the end of the world, but I think it would shake up the market quite a bit.

[betty11]

This is a pure act of witch hunting by the Chinese government. Bitcoin actually pose no threat to their environment as long as the miners are paying their electricity bills and not stealing power. The truth is that the government is scared because they have no control over the bitcoin and they had expected it will would die before now, yet it keeps rising. Why can't the Chinese government just allow the people to be and decide their freedom themselves? Miners can move to Hong-Kong  and nearby countries should this happen, which I believe is not going to happen.

[Elkmar]

They do it every few months, that's not even affecting the price anymore.

Easy to understand why China Policy is not compatible with cryptocurrencies, they should just say it.

[leea-1334]

I never agree that China or India, or even any other developing country needs to care SO much about the environment and sacrifice their industrial outputs and productivity,,, remember it is easy for developed nations to say they take care of the planet, but it was them who killed all their wildlife and burned down all their forests and polluted all their rivers,,, then also came to Asia and Africa to take resources.

But at the same time,,, China pretending to care about the environment is too silly!