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Topic: [2017-09-24] Chinese Bitcoin Miners Feel Regulatory Heat (Read 3090 times)

legendary
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There are other rumors that the threats on bitcoin done by the Chinese government are only temporary because there is the Communist Party convention coming next month. China might be making an effort to show to international agencies and their own party members that they are still in control of the financial system.

legendary
Activity: 1526
Merit: 1179
We have seen quite some Chinese related news articles that are being pumped into the net, but I don't see any reason to take for granted that the Chinese authorities are after the mining industry as well.

Bitcoin's network is decentralized, meaning, if one country ends up being prevented from operating mining farms, there are plenty of alternative countries ready to expand their operations.

Those behind the major Chinese mining farms won't have any problems into setting up their activities elsewhere. Sure, it's a situation you at all cost want to avoid, but it's not like this is the end of anything.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1012
★Nitrogensports.eu★
If mining hardware and equipments will be seized by the government, it will be a doom day for the market, especially for the miners in China that will be suffer a great loss. Current situation isn't so good as the miners can't trade bitcoin freely due to only two big exchanges still provide their services until the end of October. In that case, yes, we haven't see the worst, and bitcoin price may crash once again.

The only way to escape from this situation is moving out of the country as long as they still be able to do that, just like; LedgerX developer Bryan Bishop warned Yang and his fellow bitcoin miners last week to “make immediate evacuation plans. Hire semi-trucks, load up the equipment, get out right now.”


There will be no competitive advantage for Chinese miners mining outside of China. In China they benefited from low costs, including low electricity costs. If they shut down, companies in Greenland and other regions will just take over.
hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 526
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Bryan Bishop‏
@kanzure
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Replying to @SeasideCrypto @csakzozo
Bryan Bishop Retweeted Bryan Bishop

There's still time for Chinese miners to get their equipment out. Go right now, before $ slush fund is empty.

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1/ For people asking about China update, our contacts say we haven’t seen the worst yet.
 Spencer Bogart‏Verified account @bitcom21  
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Replying to @bitcom21
2/ The most conservative outcome being that all OTC trading is banned which indirectly kills all miners (can’t sell mined BTC).
full member
Activity: 966
Merit: 104
Chinese miners who produce bitcoin can only sympathize. They became hostages to a sharp change in the policy of their government with respect to the crypto currency. But what will the government of China do next? To forbid completely any crypto currency and in the future not to notice its circulation in other countries probably will be a stupid step. If they decide to extract their own crypto currency, then it is possible that the current capacity of miners for bitcoin mining will be used for this.
hero member
Activity: 1036
Merit: 514
If mining hardware and equipments will be seized by the government, it will be a doom day for the market, especially for the miners in China that will be suffer a great loss. Current situation isn't so good as the miners can't trade bitcoin freely due to only two big exchanges still provide their services until the end of October. In that case, yes, we haven't see the worst, and bitcoin price may crash once again.

The only way to escape from this situation is moving out of the country as long as they still be able to do that, just like; LedgerX developer Bryan Bishop warned Yang and his fellow bitcoin miners last week to “make immediate evacuation plans. Hire semi-trucks, load up the equipment, get out right now.”
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 501
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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.
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