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China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

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Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#41
post #37

Is it just me or has China been doing some crazy regulatory stuff recently. Idk if there's an overall mosaic I'm missing or if these are unrelated.

Yes there has recently been : - promise to block all VPN services from accessing blocked website - law to hold chat group owners responsible to what the members say (controverse political talk or gambling for example can lead to arrests) - most of casual barbecue that were held in the streets last summer have been forced to close this year in my area - tightening and more scrutinity on visa applications for foreigner…

Why would they ban blue cheese?

Is drug use high among foreigners or is that just a harrassement control to keep them in mental check, so they fear the unpredictability of the government and the power they hold over individual fate?

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#42

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -Mahatma Gandhi

Except in China it goes like this:

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you are never heard from again.

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#43

What's interesting to me is that no amount of bad news appears to affect the price of BTC. I'm not a professional or amateur trader (I've got no position on BTC at all) but the price fluctuations really seem dominated by sentiment over any sort of fundamentals.

It's a 24/7 market; the price responds a lot faster than other markets. So looking at day-over-day price isn't a good gauge. Additionally, by the time a story is known at large, it's usually been known for a bit among those who follow Bitcoin, so you'll see it already priced in.

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#44
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is more totalitarian than crushing a citizen in a public square with a tank?

Tank man wasn't crushed, FYI.

No one knows what happened to tank man.

More troubling is you don't seem to know what happened in Tiananmen square, are you in China?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jun/02/china.johngitt...

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#45

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -Mahatma Gandhi

People always quote this for all sorts of causes, but the fact that you're at one stage doesn't mean you're going to move to the next:

- First they ignore you. Nobody ever notices you.

- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you. Nobody takes you seriously.

- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. You lose.

- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Congratulations! Now who are you ignoring?

ISTM you need to have a plan for crossing each of the three filters, rather than saying "they're fighting us, therefore we'll win".

EDIT: It's even funnier if you realise that the quote is symmetric and using it as an argument also proves its opposite. Activists often sub in government/"the system" as the "they", but activists could be the "they" from the system's perspective. They start by ignoring the system, then mocking it, then fighting it, then the system wins?

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#46
post #37

Is it just me or has China been doing some crazy regulatory stuff recently. Idk if there's an overall mosaic I'm missing or if these are unrelated.

Yes there has recently been : - promise to block all VPN services from accessing blocked website - law to hold chat group owners responsible to what the members say (controverse political talk or gambling for example can lead to arrests) - most of casual barbecue that were held in the streets last summer have been forced to close this year in my area - tightening and more scrutinity on visa applications for foreigner…

For anyone reading this and thinking "wtf, no barbecues?!?", this is ostensibly some kind of anti-pollution measure to combat the extreme smog in China (though in practice likely just to make people think they are taking the issue super-seriously while refusing to address the actual problem).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chinas-pollutio...

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#47

What's interesting to me is that no amount of bad news appears to affect the price of BTC. I'm not a professional or amateur trader (I've got no position on BTC at all) but the price fluctuations really seem dominated by sentiment over any sort of fundamentals.

It's a 24/7 market; the price responds a lot faster than other markets. So looking at day-over-day price isn't a good gauge. Additionally, by the time a story is known at large, it's usually been known for a bit among those who follow Bitcoin, so you'll see it already priced in.

Yes. I guesstimate that the China exchange and miner crackdown has been priced in for weeks, if not months.

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#48
post #27

So the PBOC is taking further steps to plug the leak. Not unexpected. China has exchange controls. Internal yuan cannot be easily converted to euros or dollars. There are limits on capital outflows. The controls are leaky; the classic leak is to send all your relatives to Hong Kong loaded up with the maximum allowed amount of yuan in cash. The current limit is about $50K/year/person. Small leaks are thus tolerated. B…

> Why China has tight exchange controls is beyond the scope of this discussion. What's a good resource on this?

Look into the Impossible Trinity[0] and the history of exchange rate pegs.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_trinity

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give any more details on "China's economy is crashing"? I must admit I haven't heard anything negative about their economy, thought it was on the up and up.

Exactly it can't keep going up and up. https://www.google.com/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017...

AMP links? Really? Here's the non crapified link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/08/15/chinas-debt-b...

Re: China Bans Bitcoin Executives from Leaving Country, Miners “Preparing for Worst”

#50

All comments so far have been pro-bitcoin... does nobody think this could actually be a sensible decision?

For a totalitarian country, yes.

Well, for a country that doesn't want capital flight, anyway. I mean, you want those capitalist rats to know that they'll go down with the ship, after all.
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