[2019-08-15] Hong Kong Is Paying Higher Prices for Bitcoin Amid Political Unrest

[layer1gfx]

Hong Kong Is Paying Higher Prices for Bitcoin Amid Political Unrest

Bitcoin (BTC) has begun trading at a premium in Hong Kong as continued political uncertainty produces a widely-reported spike in demand.

[cr1776]

Everyone in Hong Kong with any intelligence should be buying some bitcoin as protection.  China wants control. Having bitcoin as part of an escape plan there is a smart thing to do.

At least some people in Hong Kong see it that way too.

[chaoscoinz]

Civil unrest has seemingly affected the supply and demand for Bitcoin over there. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't China hold the largest percentage of Bitcoin in the world? This was apart of a talk along time ago, when people were afraid of a 51% attack or something along those lines?
  It was years ago before all of the upgrades to the blockchain were made.

[layer1gfx]

chinese do the same by the way. everyone who is half-way intelligent gets some bitcoins just in case.
asia, europe, america ...
ask anyone who understands what is going on.

[BitHodler]

Not a surprise at all, but we'll have to see if it is sustainable, and where this demand is coming from. If the situation there calms down a bit and the demand falls back to regular volume levels, we know it was just a blip.

Then we have to ask ourselves what these coins are used for. If it's just a tool to move value between countries and have it converted back to fiat, then this specific form of use won't really add much value long term speaking.

Either way, it doesn't change anything from the fact that Bitcoin allows them to move value from one country to another. Who knows what would happen if they tried the same with fiat with how pressing the situation is there.

[layer1gfx]

it is one more alternative and it has been used in the same way in the past whenever some crisis forced people to do it.
hongkong has been fine for a long time enjoying privileges as the financial hub of asia. the new lords of HK seem not to care too much so people have to do the most logical next step.

[freedomgo]

Bitcoin has been used by different countries who have trouble in their government, not only to save from hyper inflation but to save from the possible foreseen situation that will result to the decline of economy.

People are getting smarter now, because bitcoin can be access through internet anytime and anyway, that alone makes it easy for the holders to hold and keep and they don't have to rely in their own fiat currency if they don't trust its future. More and more country with troubled economy will use bitcoin as a shield and hopefully we can feel the positive effect in the market soon.

[sunsilk]

With the trouble that's currently happening with Hong Kong their economy is truly affected with the political chaos. And people who wants to flee from that economic effect are intelligent to save their assets through bitcoin.

I feel bad that their country is still experiencing that misfortune knowing that they are one of the known country to have a good economy before the uproar there. 

[layer1gfx]

the question is now if HK will continue to be the economic center or not - the political situation looks rather not promising.
it would be also interesting to see if anything would change for the general bitcoin-friendly environment it has already established in the last years.
using bitcoin will definitely become more and more a political statement.

[joelsamuya]

This Hong Kong story is another indication that Bitcoin has been playing a very important safe haven role whenever an economy or a country can be in trouble as more and more people are scrambling to protect their wealth and resources for possible downturn. People who are still doubting what Bitcoin can contribute to the global economy should look at what happened and happening not just in Hong Kong but many other countries as well. 

[1Referee]

it would be also interesting to see if anything would change for the general bitcoin-friendly environment it has already established in the last years.
using bitcoin will definitely become more and more a political statement.

It could actually change for the worse if China gets more of a say in Hong Kong. In order to avoid running into problems later on, it makes sense for people there to convert a portion of their worth into Bitcoin and have it sit there until they need it. It's better prepare for worse and to not see it happen than to not prepare for worse and see it become reality and be trapped.

I have seen raw coverage of how ridiculously aggressive the cops are against people randomly walking by going to their work for example. I get it that the cops are instructed to go against those protesting, but focus on them instead of innocent people just trying to continue their day as normal as possible. Horrible situation. 

[hatshepsut93]

2% premium? That's nothing, my local exchange also has around 2% premium if you double convert to my local currency. Such fluctuations are everywhere, because liquidity on local exchanges isn't very big. When the price starts to differ by 10% or more, that's when people should be making news. If you go to coinmarketcap and look at Bitcoin markets sorted by price, you can find even bigger premiums, but they made this article about Hong Kong because it's makes a nice clickbat at this time.

[layer1gfx]

up to 10% is fine because the bitcoin market price keeps moving. if you just wanna move funds out of the system, losing 10% is nothing...

[Vishnu.Reang]

I am more worried about the cryptocurrency users from mainland China, who had registered to the exchanges in Hong Kong. After China outlawed the crypto-to-fiat trade in 2017, many of the users from mainland China had registered to various exchanges in South Korea and Hong Kong. With the relations between China and Hing Kong getting tense, these users may be left between the devil and the deep blue sea.

[Carlton Banks]

Then we have to ask ourselves what these coins are used for. If it's just a tool to move value between countries and have it converted back to fiat, then this specific form of use won't really add much value long term speaking.

there are reports that Hong Kong retailers are choosing to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a way of supporting Hong Kong's independence movement. If this continued, it might be surprisingly easy for Hong Kong to be the first jurisdiction in which cryptocurrency plays a major/dominant economic role. Hong Kong is very small and densely populated, and the independence activists are staunchly rebellious. This is actually more or less the perfect circumstances for such a thing to happen.



if anyone from Hong Kong is reading, I say:

you can do it

[layer1gfx]

one of the most active twitter users reporting on scene is the bitcoin meetup organizer leo weese.

you can read an interview with leo here:



How did the Bitcoin ecosystem built itself in HongKong? Great read. A journey through the local Bitcoin Association history.

https://digfingroup.com/leonhard-weese/

[1Referee]

I think that there will be solutions to this problem, after all, there are quite a lot of investors and it will be impossible to leave all of them without a solution

Then you don't know how relentless China is when it wants to get something done.

News came out today that China (when the protests weren't nearly as severe as they are today) has rejected a bill from HongKong's leader to find a mid-way solution to calm down the protesters. It's so retarded that China dictates what HongKong can and can't do. It's clear that China is only out to further destablize HongKong because of their own agenda. It's sickening.

I can't see this come to a good end. It's literally a battle between a rogue government versus the freedom of millions of harmless people. 

[rodel caling]

With the relations between China and Hong Kong getting tense, these users may be left between the devil and the deep blue sea.

I think that there will be solutions to this problem, after all, there are quite a lot of investors and it will be impossible to leave all of them without a solution

Yeah that is true problem always have an solution, but I think nothing to worry about the relationship between chinea and hong kong givernment. We all know hong kong is a part of of china before but the people are want to have own government and law as independent country. So chnina need to respect the decision of hong kong government.

[layer1gfx]

Update from Leo Weese, Hongkong:

Bitcoin is decentralized, Satoshi didn’t ask for permission. The language of the Hong Kong Protest Movement feels very familiar to us.

Localtechnews:



Are Businesses Turning to Bitcoin in a Dangerous Way Following the Hong Kong Protests?

https://techstartups.com/2019/09/06/businesses-turning-bitcoin-dangerous-way-following-hong-kong-protests/

[1Referee]

Update from Leo Weese, Hongkong:

Bitcoin is decentralized, Satoshi didn’t ask for permission. The language of the Hong Kong Protest Movement feels very familiar to us.

----snip----


Localtechnews:
----snip----

Are Businesses Turning to Bitcoin in a Dangerous Way Following the Hong Kong Protests?

https://techstartups.com/2019/09/06/businesses-turning-bitcoin-dangerous-way-following-hong-kong-protests/

Bitcoin is indeed decentralized, but some of the entities collecting donations use centralized payment gateways such as BitPay that keeps blocking donations.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/never-use-bitpay-hong-kong-free-press-slams-bitcoin-donation-block

In other words, BitPay decides for you who can and can't receive money from you. There doesn't seem to be an end to all the negativity BitPay is involved in this year.

Positive side of this bad news is that people will appreciate BTCPay Server more. As always, people need to be reminded from time to time why Bitcoin exists, and why it's so important to support open source projects allowing you to circumvent middlemen.