I really don't understand the capital flight argument. The Chinese economy has seen overwhelming growth in the past 10 years. If you are searching for yield, it's in China.
There is no argument, it's a fact. There is capital flight out of China. Their FX reserves have plummeted because they are trying to support the Yuan from dropping off the side of a cliff.
> Their FX reserves have plummeted
On what timescale? WP says they have $3T, same as 2016.
You are still thinking about this in terms of a physical object. Miners don't "produce" anything except in the same sense that I "produce" the answer to a crossword puzzle. You can take away my pencil but it doesn't make the puzzle unsolvable.
Dude. The mining rigs are physical. All I said was that China will seize the 'means of production' so they control the manufacture domestically. It's a phrase that was used a lot to describe the basic tenets of different types of economy and harkens to a time when industrialization was a major focus of the first world and people trying to find their place in an industrial society. The "means of production" phrase has…
I have a different technological perspective on this. Having traveled and lived in Asian, Chinese-majority cities/countries, this is a typical Chinese govt. move. In China, WeChat is a dominant player (by Tencent), a LOT of the transactions in China happen through WeChat, which offers seamless payments integration. The penetration is so strong that even poor, road-side sellers accept money through WeChat. Almost ever…
Presumably you meant to type "Twitter" there, which Weibo clones.
Dude. The mining rigs are physical. All I said was that China will seize the 'means of production' so they control the manufacture domestically. It's a phrase that was used a lot to describe the basic tenets of different types of economy and harkens to a time when industrialization was a major focus of the first world and people trying to find their place in an industrial society. The "means of production" phrase has…
Yep, thanks, I'm aware of the history of the term. Think back to what I said about crossword puzzles. If China had a world-class crossword puzzle team, winning every competition, why on earth would they seize their own team's pencils? It wouldn't stop the competitions from happening, and it wouldn't stop other teams from winning them. I'm not trying to be a pedantic prick on the internet, so please excuse me if I'm c…
Because it is the most efficient way to build a reserve of a limited commodity (bitcoin) that has a much longer exponential curve to expand along.
Currently, the Chinese miners are operating as a business to squeeze a margin out of the discounted electricity available in China. It is in China's interests to treat this as a national resource wherein it is produced domestically. My thesis is NOT that they want to control Bitcoin, only the domestic production for their long term national interests. Remember mining will continue until approximately 2140, that is a significant horizon to look at.
I have a different technological perspective on this. Having traveled and lived in Asian, Chinese-majority cities/countries, this is a typical Chinese govt. move. In China, WeChat is a dominant player (by Tencent), a LOT of the transactions in China happen through WeChat, which offers seamless payments integration. The penetration is so strong that even poor, road-side sellers accept money through WeChat. Almost ever…
Interesting - but isn't Bitcoin more of a protocol and WeChat more of an application? Couldn't WeChat offer Bitcoin payments?
I think parent means that china avoids the risks of using theoretically subversive decentral foreign technologies, is this right?
As soon as I read this, two words came to mind: Capital flight. A growing number of Chinese nationals has been using Bitcoin to siphon money out of China over the past several years.[1][2] Not surprisingly, the Chinese government is cracking down on this innovative form of capital flight. [1] http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1891021-how-chinese-use-bitc... [2] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/chinese-i…
> The saver can then exchange bitcoin for dollars at any of the global bitcoin exchanges without anyone ever knowing his identity. This is where the "Chinese people use Bitcoin to exfil capital" story falls apart. It's near impossible to open a foreign bank account and pass KYC from within China as a Chinese citizen. You have to travel to Macau or Hong Kong - and if you're doing that you may as well use the cheaper a…
When I worked in Shanghai this year, I noticed that a business openly advertising "large sum transfers" was located literally one door away from city's procurator office.
Note that the Chinese government also demanded DVDs of all transaction records at the exchanges. This means that the Chinese citizens who moved their Bitcoin off of the exchange will have to answer to the bean counters. How could a clever Chinese citizen avoid government scrutiny of their cryptocurrency finances under these conditions? They could trade Yuan (cash) for BTC through an underground mechanism of some sort…
They could buy the hardware and power needed to mine new coins. This seems to be the simplest solution for someone who wants to get a couple thousand bitcoins without leaving a paper trail.
You gotta buy the hardware in some fashion that is deniable or hidden .... same thing with running it.
I have a different technological perspective on this. Having traveled and lived in Asian, Chinese-majority cities/countries, this is a typical Chinese govt. move. In China, WeChat is a dominant player (by Tencent), a LOT of the transactions in China happen through WeChat, which offers seamless payments integration. The penetration is so strong that even poor, road-side sellers accept money through WeChat. Almost ever…
Interesting - but isn't Bitcoin more of a protocol and WeChat more of an application? Couldn't WeChat offer Bitcoin payments?
Try to explain this to an average communist party member
Interesting theory but how can China control Bitcoin if there's nothing stopping people in other countries from mining it?
China will nationalize the domestic creation of Bitcoin. This is their sphere of influence. Thus they will control the domestic production of bitcoins. This nationalization will kick off the next leg up of the exponential growth for bitcoin. Just as the US Marshals auctioning off the Silk Road coins established legality in the American market. China will want to control capital flight and will use bitcoin as the rele…
I have a different technological perspective on this. Having traveled and lived in Asian, Chinese-majority cities/countries, this is a typical Chinese govt. move. In China, WeChat is a dominant player (by Tencent), a LOT of the transactions in China happen through WeChat, which offers seamless payments integration. The penetration is so strong that even poor, road-side sellers accept money through WeChat. Almost ever…
Interesting - but isn't Bitcoin more of a protocol and WeChat more of an application? Couldn't WeChat offer Bitcoin payments?
WeChat is kind of a protocol for life there. I'd argue it has a stronger influence in China than Facebook does in the US.