Certainly one of 2021’s greatest tales was the China ban on Bitcoin mining. On one hand, the information did have an effect on Bitcoin’s worth and gave ammunition to the naysayers that suppose that governments will outlaw Bitcoin. On the opposite, the community saved working with no hiccup, recovered its hashrate in document time, and gained in decentralization. Nonetheless, a query stays. Why did China exclude itself from this very profitable exercise wherein they have been dominating?
As Bitcoin entrepreneur John Carvalho not-so-eloquently put it, “I refuse to imagine that China is silly.” There needs to be a motive, even when it’s a easy one. To assist our viewers clear up the puzzle, NewsBTC determined to assemble all of our theories in a single put up.
China Ban Concept #1: The Digital Yuan CBDC
This one is as simple because it will get. When China began cracking down on miners, NewsBTC reported: “As for the attainable causes, Bitcoin Journal’s Lucas Nuzzi cites the upcoming Digital Yuan CBDC.” And Nuzzi mentioned, “They’re actually rolling out their very own coin (a CBDC) that can allow the mass surveillance and unbanking of dissidents.”
1/ The CCP formally banning #Bitcoin ought to come as no shock.
They’re actually rolling out their very own coin (a CBDC) that can allow the mass surveillance and unbanking of dissidents.#Bitcoin is at full odds with that. Dictatorships don’t love freedom cash.
— Lucas Nuzzi (@LucasNuzzi) June 21, 2021
So, did China kill a possible billion-dollar business simply to squash their CBDC’s competitors? Is that it?
China Ban Concept #2: Blackouts
Is China having power points? In that very same article, we posed one other idea:
“On reflection, we should always’ve seen it coming. Solely two months in the past, following a suspicious blackout, NewsBTC reported:
In line with the Beijing Financial and Data Bureau, there have been considerations in regards to the power consumption associated to those actions. PengPai quotes Yu Jianing, rotating Chairman of the Blockchain Particular Committee of China, to say that the nation’s environmental necessities might result in crypto mining being extra “strictly regulated”. Jianing mentioned this might be “inevitable.”
Nonetheless, would they be decommissioning small hydropower stations if this was the case?
China Ban Concept #3: Cleaner Vitality Sources
Our report on small hydropower stations’ supply was government-regulated media, so take it with a grain of salt. It begins with a declare that clashes closely with idea #2:
“In line with the article, the heyday of personal energy crops in China was the start of the century. Buyers constructed hundreds of hydropower stations as a result of they noticed them as a relentless money cow. For his or her half, the areas close by noticed them as an indication of progress and an answer to their power issues.
Nonetheless, with the gradual surplus of electrical energy in China lately, the electrical energy generated by hydropower stations is usually destined to being deserted (generally referred to as “abandonment of electrical energy”)”
However, the primary motive for the decommissioning appeared to be repairing the unique circulate of the rivers. “Hydropower stations have all the time been one of many vital elements limiting the ecology of Sichuan’s rivers,” mentioned Wang Hua, deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Water Sources Division. We went a step additional:
“It’s attainable that the federal government is making an attempt to eliminate these crops. That may clarify the article’s tone, it looks like it was making an attempt to get traders to keep away from these hydropower stations. In mild of this, China’s ban on Bitcoin mining might simply be a part of an excellent greater play. They’re critical and methodically shaking issues up over there.
What could possibly be their end-game? Is China simply making an attempt to go carbon impartial and restore the unique circulate of the rivers? Or is there one thing else at play right here?”
Nonetheless, one thing doesn’t add up. In one other article in regards to the ban, we highlighted that hydropower power is clear power.
“Did China make the error of a lifetime by banning Bitcoin mining or have they got a secret plan?
The truth that the electrical energy for crypto mining in Sichuan got here from clear hydropower meant that many thought the province can be a secure haven for Bitcoin miners.”
China Ban Concept #4: The New China Mannequin
We explored Bloomberg’s idea a couple of “much less founder-driven and extra China-centric” mannequin that China was supposedly exploring.
“If China is abandoning the Silicon Valley mannequin, what’s going to it change it with? Insiders recommend it is going to be much less founder-driven and extra China-centric.
Why is China dwarfing its greatest industries and gamers? Is the “China Mannequin” simply involved with scale? Or is management their focus? Are they cracking down on folks and firms with an excessive amount of energy that work on a world scale?”
And though it wasn’t fairly plausible, it launched the idea that China was additionally cracking down on their greatest tech executives. Perhaps this isn’t solely about Bitcoin?
BTC worth chart for 01/02/2022 on Bitrex | Supply: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
China Ban Concept #5: Making Bitcoin Arduous To Use
This one doesn’t clarify the overarching theme of the China ban. It does add colour to no matter idea you favor, although. In an occasion, Yin Youping, Deputy Director of the Monetary Shopper Rights Safety Bureau of the Folks’s Financial institution of China, mentioned, “We remind the folks as soon as once more that digital currencies comparable to Bitcoin should not authorized tender and haven’t any precise worth help.” And proceeded to listing all the pieces the PBOC was doing to fight cryptocurrency buying and selling.
Within the NewsBTC report about it, we mentioned:
“Perhaps their plan is less complicated than we thought. It’s attainable that The Folks’s Financial institution of China is simply going to make it actually actually arduous for the frequent citizen to entry Bitcoin. And, China’ll use propaganda and repetition to maintain folks in test and fearful of the unknown. Certainly one of Bitcoin’s prototipical adversarial eventualities. A battle that Bitcoin anticipated in the end.”
China Ban Concept #6: Making ready For Evergrande’s Default
Was the Chinese language authorities simply closing the exits? They knew that the Evergrande state of affairs was inevitable and didn’t need folks to have the Bitcoin lifeboat accessible. In our report, we mentioned:
“To recap: the federal government noticed this coming from a distance. They knew the disaster was going to repeatedly hit the nation and banned Bitcoin mining to scare the inhabitants into not shopping for the toughest asset ever created. Bitcoin, the true hedge in opposition to the collapse of each financial system.”
China Ban Concept #7: FUD To Get Extra Bitcoin
In line with John Carvalho’s wild and filled with assumptions idea, China bans one thing associated to Bitcoin each cycle to control the worth and get extra BTC. The nation has no incentive to ban the business. They make an excessive amount of cash mining, plus they management the ASICs producers, plus mining machines inflate the worth of chips, and so they management that enterprise too. So, Carvalho’s idea is:
“The principle ASIC producer, the Chinese language firm Bitmain, had a brand new technology of miners prepared. So, the CCP “determined to create a requirement for the aftermaket and mix it with the FUD.” As they often do, they bought their Bitcoin and made their shorts. Then, China banned Bitcoin mining and the entire nation turned off the ASICs. The world perceived the ban as actual, simply “have a look at the hashrate.” That is the primary time this occurs. Then, China bought a small portion of its ASICs to the USA.”
In line with him, Bitcoin mining in China didn’t cease, they’re simply not signing the blocks. After all, he doesn’t have any proof, and neither will we. That is only a idea, like all of the others.
What’s actually occurring in China? What’s the rationale behind the good China ban of 2021? We wouldn’t know for positive, however we now have many suspicions. Let’s hope 2022 provides us stable proof, new insights, or, at the least, a believable clarification.
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