China Orders Bitcoin Exchanges In Capital City To Close (bbc.com) 71
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: China is moving forward with plans to shut down Bitcoin exchanges in the country, starting with trading platforms in key cities. All Bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai have been ordered to submit plans for winding down their operations by 20 September. The move follows the Chinese central bank's decision to ban initial coin offerings in early September. Top exchange BTCC said it would stop trading at the end of the month. Chinese authorities decided to ban digital currencies as part of a plan for reducing the country's financial risks. All exchanges are required to send regulators a detailed "risk-free" plan of how they intend to exit the market before 18:30 local time on Wednesday 20 September. The regulator also ordered the exchanges to submit DVDs containing all user trading and holding data to the local authorities. Shareholders, controllers, executives, and core financial and technical staff of exchanges are also required to remain in Beijing during the shutdown and to co-operate fully with authorities.
"But, but, but..." (Score:5, Funny)
"It's different this time!"
*pop*
oh
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More like..
* Close down temporarily.
* Update business model to follow Chinese regulations
* Open for business.
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"Update business model to follow Chinese regulations"
Bribe all the right people.
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Proof? 6 of the top 20 richest people in the world are all members of the official "Party" in a country that still claims to be communist? Maybe they don't to deal with the hassle and expense to re-brand their country and relegate any thing referencing to communism to a museum.
If you want your widgets to be manufactured using slave labor in China you are required to hand over and IP associated with your widget. If you want access to the Chinese market to sell your widgets you will also be handing over all
Re:So much for free market reforms (Score:5, Interesting)
Have a look at property prices in Australia and New Zealand, (there are probably other places too).
Added bonus (in NZ anyway), no capital gains tax.
Another added bonus, make friends with the right people, and you can be a citizen. [nzherald.co.nz]
Nothing suspicious about that though, oh no.
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Invest $1 million in a new business (or $500K if it is in "targetted employment area") and you get an EB-5 visa.
This is smart policy. We send money to China in exchange for containers full of Walmart merchandise, and then the money flows back into America as investments by Chinese who then become American residents. Win win.
Re: So much for free market reforms (Score:2)
Source?
Here is a pro property bubble website claiming that Chinese investment into Australia is about 31 billion per year.
An additional 31 billion into a finite resource increases prices across the board. What is your logic for claiming it has no effect?
My source. [domain.com.au]
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If you add an extra 5% in demand, it will absolutely push prices up by more than that 5%, because people will bid higher to purchase houses.
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I chose that link because the source (Fairfax) has a vested interest in keeping property prices high and downplaying the impact of Chinese investment (their only profitable division is Domain, their real estate group). Fairfax have a vested interest in downplaying the role of Chinese investment as their business model benefits from high property prices - population pressures in major cities are causing increasing levels of racism in Australia right now, and blowback against Chinese investment could reduce
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Corrupt Chinese businessmen already have a great money laundering scheme for getting money out of the country. Have a look at property prices in Australia and New Zealand, (there are probably other places too).
They've definitely gone up in Hong Kong too, to the detriment of locals. Hong Kong was already a challenging place to live in due to sky high property prices before mainlanders started messing with the local property market. It's gotten much worse in recent years, which some didn't think was possible.
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The "crash" started on September 12th its "peak" was on September 15th, when a BTC was traded for a bit below 3K USD.
It immediately recovered 3h later and had a dip to around 3500 on September 17th. Right now it's being traded for 3918 USD.
I wouldn't bet on its demise just yet.
Re:interesting (Score:4, Insightful)
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I would not bet on its demise nor would I bet on it holding its value. The impact of the chinese shutdown is yet to be felt, it will depend heavily on how much dodgy money was being funnelled through bitcoin as a way to hide money leaving china, that impact won't be known for a while yet, nor will the impact of exchanges handing over all the details of buyers and sellers.
If the exchanges are closed Bitcoin cannot we cashed out in the Chinese market. That being said, I don't see how this will have any effect on the current price of Bitcoin outside of maintaining it's holding value until those same markets reopen.
The big "dump" took place after the first announcement in China. At this point however the currency is maintaining its stable value. I don't see any major changes in the near future outside of the value increasing. It's a matter of time I suppose.
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That's because you obviously have not done too much thinking on how money laundering via bitcoin in China works. The best way of getting caught red-handed as someone trying to move money out of country with BC would have been to immediately start cashing out everything you have. That would've caus
You left out an important detail here: (Score:1)
The Chinese own a supermajority of the hashing rate on the Bitcoin network. Which means that not long after this crackdown on exchanges happens, we will see the same thing happen to miners, if it isn't already in progress. And that gets complicated when it turns out China isn't shutting down the miners, but rather having them come under government regulation and control, perhaps leading to modified mining software that the Party can use to artificially imbalance the worldwide bitcoin network. This could be
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This is way, way more than a shut down of bitcoin by the government of China, this is a mass fishing expedition for crimes facilitated by the use of bitcoin. The government of China look set to be making use of bitcoin as a flag for criminal activity and doing major crime data mining to pursue those who have used bitcoin in China to facilitate crime. Depending upon how well they do, will drive how soon other countries follow suit. Way more dangerous than a simply shut down.
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The "crash" started on September 12th its "peak" was on September 15th, when a BTC was traded for a bit below 3K USD. It immediately recovered 3h later and had a dip to around 3500 on September 17th. Right now it's being traded for 3918 USD.
I wouldn't bet on its demise just yet.
Yes. The crash to end all crashes.
It's happened before. [slashdot.org]
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All value is based on what the two parties think it's worth. At this point the market thinks $4,000 for a Bitcoin is totally worth it.
And don't whip out Tulips out your ass.. False comparison since Tulips have a shelf-life and no technical use.
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I have an ass tulip here that makes seeds that make bulbs for new tulips, every year, plausibly ad infinitum.
Bitcoin Miner (Score:2)
Fiat currency (Score:2)
The first rule of a fiat currency is that you must compel people to use it. Even if that means shutting down access to other currencies (china today) or making trading in precious metals illegal (USA, 1933). Bonus points from making the world use your fiat currency (USA 1947), and by the way, you may have to invade other countries of start a few coups along the way to ensure they continue to use your fiat currency.
Really, nothing to see here......