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This was very much expected as China has strict financial liquidity controls and bitcoin was being used expressly to bypass the same and take money out of the s

by lingben 13y ago

This was very much expected as China has strict financial liquidity controls and bitcoin was being used expressly to bypass the same and take money out of the system. The Chinese government isn't stupid.

nkuttler 13y ago
Yeah, no sane person would have expected BTC to become legal tender in China soon. Very nice that they acknowledge BTC and say that trading it is fine. This is really good news and the article is just trying to make up a negative story.
- lingben 13y ago
  Sure, they acknowledge it to be on par with WoW points. They can't stop people from bartering with it, just like they can't stop people from bartering with chickens or eggs. What the central bank has done is shut bitcoins out of the formal Chinese financial and banking system. Which means it is an interesting digital phenomena but definitely not a currency.
gohrt 13y ago
"Liquidity controls" meaning what? Preventing Chinese from buying non-Chinese products+services with yuan? Or from moving USD out of China? If yuan are hard to spend, due to legal constraints, I don't imagine a non-Chines is willing to sell BTC for yuan. How would a Chinese use BTC in this way? Buy BTC from someone willing to accept yuan; spend the BTC on .... foreign goods mailed to China? Foreign assets, to "park" the value for a while ?
trevelyan 13y ago
I think you need to read between the lines. The fact that five Ministries and departments inserted themselves into this declaration suggests that the Bank of China is not strong enough to unilaterally ban bitcoin beyond what we have seen here: fairly sensible restrictions on BTC investment and holding by financial institutions. What we are witnessing may even be a regulatory coup of sorts by MIIT, the Ministry with the most obvious interest in promoting bitcoin and the strongest claim to serve as regulator of it and other "virtual commodities".

by lingben 13y ago

nkuttler 13y ago

Yeah, no sane person would have expected BTC to become legal tender in China soon. Very nice that they acknowledge BTC and say that trading it is fine. This is really good news and the article is just trying to make up a negative story.

lingben 13y ago
Sure, they acknowledge it to be on par with WoW points. They can't stop people from bartering with it, just like they can't stop people from bartering with chickens or eggs. What the central bank has done is shut bitcoins out of the formal Chinese financial and banking system. Which means it is an interesting digital phenomena but definitely not a currency.

gohrt 13y ago

"Liquidity controls" meaning what? Preventing Chinese from buying non-Chinese products+services with yuan? Or from moving USD out of China? If yuan are hard to spend, due to legal constraints, I don't imagine a non-Chines is willing to sell BTC for yuan. How would a Chinese use BTC in this way? Buy BTC from someone willing to accept yuan; spend the BTC on .... foreign goods mailed to China? Foreign assets, to "park" the value for a while ?

trevelyan 13y ago

I think you need to read between the lines. The fact that five Ministries and departments inserted themselves into this declaration suggests that the Bank of China is not strong enough to unilaterally ban bitcoin beyond what we have seen here: fairly sensible restrictions on BTC investment and holding by financial institutions. What we are witnessing may even be a regulatory coup of sorts by MIIT, the Ministry with the most obvious interest in promoting bitcoin and the strongest claim to serve as regulator of it and other "virtual commodities".