In what has been seen by many as a long-expected move, the Chinese have now banned any form of communications that may tend to criticize, oppose or cast aspersions on Bitcoin and blockchain technology. This, of course, presents the new reality that the Chinese find themselves in: one in which they have chosen to champion nascent decentralized technologies which will determine to some extent how adoption will play out in the rest of the world.
Following comments by Chinese President Xi Jinping supporting blockchain technology, the rising prices of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies, the passing of the cryptography law by the Politburo, the filing of about 500 blockchain projects and the introduction of a regulatory agency for digital currency by the People’s Bank of China, the Chinese have decided to use their all-encompassing censor apparatus to actually defend blockchain in a move that has led many within the blockchain community and crypto space to be divided.
Sources indicate that the Chinese government has started moving in the direction of censoring anti-blockchain news to push the popularity of the technology in the right direction. While many find it ironic that the Chinese have to make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree reversal on their initial stance others see it as a serendipitous event that will lead to the adoption of cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technology on a faster and broader scale than thought possible.
3/ Articles saying blockchain technology is a scam are now BANNED.
Who still remember the days when posts promoting blockchain getting deleted real fast? pic.twitter.com/W5iRJ3PDYS
— cnLedger (@cnLedger) October 28, 2019
For a brief period, especially over the past two years the Chinese have been quite antagonistic towards the crypto space and have made moves virtually preventing activities regarding cryptocurrency activities on Chinese soil only to in an about-face almost overnight change their position.
While this may look like it is the case, it is quite different considering the unitary system of government that the Chinese run. To preserve stability, the state sometimes seeks to understand new phenomena and if it is beneficial to the people it will back the phenomena and even go out of its way to create platforms for it as we are seeing in this case.
While many may not see it from this perspective, the truth is that the Chinese having understudied the many benefits of blockchain technology have also decided to be one of the few countries to get there first before anyone else as Li Chen who researches Chinese financial systems told Fortune magazine:
“I think there’s a high chance that China will be among the first batch of global central banks to launch a digital currency.”
This, of course, means that if a quarter of the world’s population now decides to use blockchain technology on a massive scale, then the technology is bound to catch up with the rest of the world as soon as possible.
What remains to be seen, however, is the love-lost relationship that the Chinese have had with the crypto space and the blockchain community and more importantly how they intend to fix it. For now, though it appears that the Chinese are bent on making blockchain technology popular and as far as new technology is concerned: the more the merrier.
