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

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51–60 of 270 posts

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

#51

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

Here you go: Have you ever heard of capital flight from Russia? Oligarchs sell oil then then purchase houses in London or Manhattan. The country is gradually hollowed out. China, OTOH, is trying to keep the money at home.

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

#52

China's fast descent into totalitarianism is fascinating and scary. One can easily replace 'bitcoin executives' with 'foreign executives' or 'foreign assets' and see where this is going. I wonder if those companies that choose to outsource all the jobs in their country to China realized what they've done.

Has China ever not been a totalitarian state?

There was some democracy in the late 1800s to early 1900s. But it didn't gel with the Confucian ethos. Stephenson's Diamond Age is actually pretty informative.

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

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: how are capital controls vs money laundering different from the perspective of the one with the money?

Depends if you obtained your funds legally or illegally? With former you are betting against Chinese economy with latter you are looking to leave less traces of activities that got you those funds.

That's not such a strong distinction, I think. I mean, "legally" and "illegally" are defined by the State. And there's plenty opportunity for selective/surprise enforcement.

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

#54

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.

Trends have been more or less identical for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin over the past month or so. The following picture only spans a week, but it shows the exact same rise and fall in prices for all 3 -- https://i.imgur.com/GjsCMUZ.png.

Trying to fit models to that picture (or the other way around) seems like trouble, but it stuck out as interesting.

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

#55
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…

> China has exchange controls

Bitcoin is irrelevant, compared to still-tolerated and massively-more voluminous alternatives, for capital controls. This is a red herring.

Bitcoin was fine until ICO promoters started pilfering from the masses. In any case, China is currently loosening its capital controls [1].

This isn’t a problem that can be constrained to China. China is just reacting first. The rebranding of this action away from fraud and towards capital controls is dishonest.

[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-capital-cont...

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal nor financial advice. Do not launder money.

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

#56

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.

> It's a 24/7 market; the price responds a lot faster than other markets

Weighted by volume or capital flow, most markets are 24/7.

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

#57

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.

I'm by no means an expert on this, but the timing for several of these likely relates to the once every 5 years National Congress of the Communist Party of China occurring next month. There are competing factions, and it's probable that some of these decisions benefit one over another.

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

#58

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.

They have a lot of debt building up as well as a huge real estate bubble that makes SF look tame. However, it hasn't crashed yet.

It's all sovereign debt, denominated in a token they can create at will. It's not like a household with an out of control credit card habit.

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

#59
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…

> China has exchange controls Bitcoin is irrelevant, compared to still-tolerated and massively-more voluminous alternatives, for capital controls. This is a red herring. Bitcoin was fine until ICO promoters started pilfering from the masses. In any case, China is currently loosening its capital controls [1]. This isn’t a problem that can be constrained to China. China is just reacting first. The rebranding of this ac…

How is it irrelevant? You can buy Bitcoin with yuan, transfer the bitcoin to a foreign exchange, and then buy another currency like the US dollar with the bitcoin, thereby circumventing capital controls.

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

#60
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

My guess is food safety. Not quite real food safety, but also not made up. Some European cheeses are not available in here Australia because of regulations about how dairy products have to be processed (Pasteurisation I guess).

Not only might that logic work in China too, but the culture is less tolerant of a food-stuff what is after all curdled milk with a fungal infection. (And we in the west get grossed out by chicken feet!).

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