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Bitcoin In China Still Chugging Along, a Year After Clampdown

Posted by timothy on from the government-vs-the-people dept.

angry tapir writes A year after China began tightening regulations around Bitcoin, the virtual currency is still thriving in the country, albeit on the fringes, according to its largest exchange. Bitcoin prices may have declined, but Chinese buyers are still trading the currency in high volumes with the help of BTC China, an exchange that witnessed the boom days back in 2013, only to see the bust following the Chinese government's announcement, in December of that year, that banks would be banned from trading in bitcoin.

1 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Cannot regulate bitcoin in the traditional sense by brxndxn · · Score: 4, Informative
    Bitcoin is a protocol more than it is a currency. Everything about the bitcoin protocol is made to keep a record of value that cannot be faked or stolen (when implemented properly). It is a complicated technology and governments will take a while to grasp it - just as it took years for governments and people to grasp just what 'the Internet' was. A government can make all the regulations or limitations it wants about Bitcoin - but it cannot have any influence over the Bitcoin protocol unless it participates. Participation makes Bitcoin stronger. There are no specifications in the protocol that give government any more control over Bitcoin protocol than anyone else that participates. If one country makes it harder (or illegal) for its population to use Bitcoin, that country and their population will have fewer Bitcoins.

    Unless the Bitcoin protocol is broken, Bitcoin will always have value. Bitcoin is a finite resource. The value will be determined by the marketplace.

    There are other alternative virtual currencies just like there are other alternative network protocols. However, as with almost any technology, the first widely-accepted implementation becomes the standard. TCP/IP is far from the best network protocol - but it is good enough. Bitcoin is far from the best virtual currency - but it is the most widely accepted.

    I think it's fairly stupid at this point not to have a small amount of Bitcoin just in case it really starts to be accepted.

    --
    --- We need more Ron Paul!