Crypto twitter erupted Monday after report a crypto headline on Monday’s edition of the official state run publication of the people’s republic of china, Xinhua. The paper reportedly featured an article tilted ‘Bitcoin; The First Successful Application of Blockchain technology’.
The article was first put on crypto twitter’s radar by Sino Global capital CEO Matthew graham who went ahead to post it.
The article was not full of compliments as we have come to expect in light of China’s new attitude towards crypto. The first few line of the article was translated to say;
“First of all, Bitcoin is not a tangible currency. It is produced and operated on the Internet … [Unlike] banknotes [which are] supported by national laws and sovereign credit, Bitcoin is completely born in the modern technology Internet era”
Though it’s been all smiles and positives when it came to crypto and the Blockchain in china over the past few weeks, the country is not fully supportive of crypto. The first few lines were therefore not a surprise from a regime that discourages its citizens from dabbling in digital currency. Though the first few lines were not flattering to Bitcoin, there is a silver line in all this. As they say, all publicity is good publicity. Bitcoin appearing as a headline in a daily that is read by millions of people every day will go a long way in introducing people to the concept.
The article then went on to detail how Blockchain works and touched in cryptography, mining, consensus, and halving. When listing characteristics of Bitcoin, they called it,
“Good anonymity, the identity of the account holder will not be known to anyone. People can freely transfer money through Bitcoin without having to verify various identity information like bank transfer,”
The article then veered off from the positive endorsements and claimed that Bitcoin was most widely being used for “black market” and “darknet transactions. There was also a veiled warning on the price fluctuations of Bitcoin.
“The price of Bitcoin is subject to large fluctuations. Bitcoin is just a bunch of data. If it is not linked to real money and physical goods, it is difficult to ensure the stability of its price.”
While a lot of caveats still exist, china appears to be slowly warming up to Bitcoin. President Xi Jinping’s pro Blockchain speech a few weeks ago has led to softer stance on crypto. Just last week, Bitcoin mining was removed from the official list of industries to be cracked down on by the country’s national development and reform commission (NDRC). The country’s finance sector is also looking to international financing using Blockchain technology and Artificial intelligence. Before all this, China was being touted as the closest country to a national CBDC
