- China is set to allow cryptocurrency mining.
- The nation hosts the four largest mining pools around the world.
- The Chinese government is making significant steps towards the adoption of blockchain technology.
Cryptocurrency mining will be kept alive in China. The news come after President Xi Jinping announced that his country will “take the leading position in the emerging field of blockchain.”
China Will Allow Crypto Mining
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), one of the highest-ranking economic planning agencies under China’s State Council, published today the final version of the “Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog.” This is a list that contains those industries that the regulatory body wants to encourage, regulate, or eliminate from the nation’s financial sector, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
In the finalized plan, NDRC removed “virtual currency mining, such as the production process of bitcoin” from the category it had proposed to eliminate back in April.
During that time, the Commission had released a draft proposal pressuring local governments throughout China to eradicate cryptocurrency mining. The move was seen as a sign that the Chinese government was planning to ban cryptocurrency mining. But, after several months of public consultation and revising 2,500 suggestions on various issues, the agency put an end to that idea.
According to Dovey Wan, a founding partner at Primitive Ventures, the message is clear:
“Six months ago crypto Twitter was screaming about ‘China banning bitcoin mining’ when a fuzzy drafted ‘guideline’ was published by China state planning department. The official version is out: cryptocurrency mining is removed from the ‘eliminating category’”
The final catalog would likely have a positive impact on the cryptocurrency mining industry in general. China alone is home to four of the five largest bitcoin mining pools on the planet, including Poolin, BTC.com, F2Pool, Antpool. These four Chinese-based mining pools commanded over 60 percent of the total bitcoin mining hash rate in the last seven days, according to the market statistics platform Coin Dance.
The recent developments coming from China indicate that the nation is making the necessary steps to embrace blockchain technology. The move is seen as part of President Xi’s decision to put his country at the forefront of the blockchain industry. As the country prepares to launch its national cryptocurrency, more actions can be expected to come that will foster the adoption of this technology.
This article was edited by Samburaj Das.
Last modified: November 6, 2019 10:40 UTC
