China declares all crypto-currency transactions illegal

[WkdPaul]

Do not make this political, focus on the crypto and tech side of this news, and avoid political discussions since this isn't allowed.

 

 

Summary

China's central bank has announced that all transactions of crypto-currencies are illegal, effectively banning digital tokens

 

Quotes

Quote

"Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities," the People's Bank of China said, warning it "seriously endangers the safety of people's assets".

China is one of the world's largest crypto-currency markets.

 

Fluctuations there often impact the global price of crypto-currencies.

 

The price of Bitcoin fell by more than $2,000 (£1,460) in the wake of the Chinese announcement.

 

It is the latest in China's national crackdown on what it sees as a volatile, speculative investment at best - and a way to launder money at worst.

 

[...]

 

Trading crypto-currency has officially been banned in China since 2019, but has continued online through foreign exchanges.

 

However, there has been a significant crackdown this year.

 

 

My thoughts

This will for sure have a large effect on the crypto currency market. I don't think it's going to die, but the price will for sure crash for a long while. I do hope this will have positive effect on the GPU market, including used GPUs.

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58678907

[adarw]

kinda expected, china is wants to keep its grip on its nation.... i hope it goes down a lot... i wanna buy.

[Lightwreather]

WElll, this was.....

TOTALLY EXPECTED

[da na]

Well...

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes? 

[Tan3l6]

China is a force to reckon with.

[Master Disaster]

Ooof, RIP the crypto market I guess.

 

Gotta wonder what the motivation was? Was it because its WAAAY to easy to scam using crypto or was it because its WAAAY to hard to track and tax crypto?

 

Considering the whole Evergrande thing that's going on, I'm guessing it's probably the latter.

[FakeATF]

It really is insane how much power in the global economy China and other Asian countries have. Decisions like these could very possibly bankrupt the entire crypto market.

[Velcade]

Quote

Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities

Any Chinese LTT members?  How are these sort of announcements carried out through a Country as large as China?  What's the penalty for continued mining? 

[Master Disaster]

Just now, FakeATF said:

It really is insane how much power in the global economy China and other Asian countries have. Decisions like these could very possibly bankrupt the entire crypto market.

Which is a perfect oxymoron since cryptos whole raison d'etre is that its decentralised and therefore no single entity is supposed to be able to affect it in this way. Just goes to show that the decentralised nature of crypto is nothing but an illusion, when governments decide its becoming a problem they can and will shut it down if they really want to.

[StDragon]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Gotta wonder what the motivation was? latter.

Evergrande

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

2 minutes ago, FakeATF said:

Decisions like these could very possibly bankrupt the entire crypto market.

And going to the casino could bankrupt a gambler.

[FakeATF]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

Which is a perfect oxymoron since cryptos whole raison d'etre is that its decentralised and therefore no single entity is supposed to be able to affect it in this way. Just goes to show that the decentralised nature of crypto is nothing but an illusion, when governments decide its becoming a problem they can and will shut it down if they really want to.

Power over the people, power over the market.

[BuckGup]

3 minutes ago, FakeATF said:

It really is insane how much power in the global economy China and other Asian countries have. Decisions like these could very possibly bankrupt the entire crypto market.

No they won't that's why decentralization is so good. Based upon what happened before with the mining ban the only people who get screwed over are chinese citizens. If anything this just makes crypto much much more lucrative for everyone else. It's also a great testament to show how big of a threat it is to central banking. This is all a win, buy the dip, wait 8 years and you'll be a multi-millionaire. 

[FakeATF]

3 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

And going to the casino could bankrupt a gambler.

Yes, but the Casino manager doesn't tell you: "Sorry, you can't gamble here, all of your money is now forefit to us."

 

I don't really see what you are getting at.

[BuckGup]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Which is a perfect oxymoron since cryptos whole raison d'etre is that its decentralised and therefore no single entity is supposed to be able to affect it in this way. Just goes to show that the decentralised nature of crypto is nothing but an illusion, when governments decide its becoming a problem they can and will shut it down if they really want to.

Don't be silly now. Drugs are illegal as well as murder and they are extremely controlled by the government yet you can find a surplus of drugs anywhere and people get murdered everyday. Just because something is labeled illegal doesn't make it vanish into a void. Nor does it impact the decentralization aspect. You say it's an illusion but that's simply not true. The reason it's decentralized is the actual mechanics of how it works. China can't shut down the blockchain nor can they trace crypto transaction to individuals, assuming they use proper security, so in short this does nothing but make it harder to use crypto in china and has no impact on the decentralized nature of it.

[wanderingfool2]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Gotta wonder what the motivation was? Was it because its WAAAY to easy to scam using crypto or was it because its WAAAY to hard to track and tax crypto?

It's not inherently easier to scam someone with crypto...there are multiple ways of scamming that don't involve it...especially because I think the vast majority have no clue about crypto so a scammer would need to talk them through it all.  Gift card scams, wiretransfer scams and classical withdraw money and overnight it an airbnb house is still the way to go.

 

I think the bigger thing going on here is the lack of control of the flow of a currency (and yes that does include the taxing as well).  A company that accepts crypto can easily shift money out of the country without any regulatory oversight...and that is a problem.  Essentially it gave a way to get wealth out of the country, which is not what a growing nation wants

 

Actually,  I wouldn't be surprised if eventually other countries do this; or similar restrictive measures. [Like making it so you have to register your wallet information with the IRC/CRA/country equivalent to that]

[Lightwreather]

9 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Which is a perfect oxymoron since cryptos whole raison d'etre is that its decentralised and therefore no single entity is supposed to be able to affect it in this way. Just goes to show that the decentralised nature of crypto is nothing but an illusion, when governments decide its becoming a problem they can and will shut it down if they really want to.

Well, sort of.
THis would affect PoW based cryptos, but PoS ones should remain theoretically remain unaffected. That being said, maybe this'll finally kill BTC, and another will rise from the ashes

[WkdPaul]

There was a dip and it's already bouncing back ;

 

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, BuckGup said:

Don't be silly now. Drugs are illegal as well as murder and they are extremely controlled by the government yet you can find a surplus of drugs anywhere and people get murdered everyday. Just because something is labeled illegal doesn't make it vanish into a void. Nor does it impact the decentralization aspect. You say it's an illusion but that's simply not true. The reason it's decentralized is the actual mechanics of how it works. China can't shut down the blockchain nor can they trace crypto transaction to individuals, assuming they use proper security, so in short this does nothing but make it harder to use crypto in china and has no impact on the decentralized nature of it.

Totally fair

 

What happens when the US decides to ban crypto trading, then the EU follows suit, the Australia. Yeah I get this is a totally unrealistic scenario but its not impossible.

 

You are still correct though, even if it was banned globally it still wouldn't disappear.

 

I think you might have taken the decentralised comment a little out of context, they cannot shut down the block chain but they can (and did) affect the price on the market.

 

4 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

It's not inherently easier to scam someone with crypto...there are multiple ways of scamming that don't involve it...especially because I think the vast majority have no clue about crypto so a scammer would need to talk them through it all.  Gift card scams, wiretransfer scams and classical withdraw money and overnight it an airbnb house is still the way to go.

 

I think the bigger thing going on here is the lack of control of the flow of a currency (and yes that does include the taxing as well).  A company that accepts crypto can easily shift money out of the country without any regulatory oversight...and that is a problem.  Essentially it gave a way to get wealth out of the country, which is not what a growing nation wants

 

Actually,  I wouldn't be surprised if eventually other countries do this; or similar restrictive measures. [Like making it so you have to register your wallet information with the IRC/CRA/country equivalent to that]

Easier? No. Easy? Yes. The shear amount of influencers running pump and dumps on their fans ATM is insane.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

21 minutes ago, FakeATF said:

Yes, but the Casino manager doesn't tell you: "Sorry, you can't gamble here, all of your money is now forefit to us."

 

I don't really see what you are getting at.

Actually that's exactly what happens when a casino closes down. All of your casino chips become worthless.

[WkdPaul]

12 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Actually that's exactly what happens when a casino closes down. All of your casino chips become worthless.

Still don't see what you're getting at

[suicidalfranco]

Meanwhile China's going

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

With the printing machine to bail out failures like Evergrande

[FruitOfTheLum]

I didn't realise cryptocurrencies were so big in China, at least not big enough to make people think that this ban would impact them in such a big way.

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

 

Considering the whole Evergrande thing that's going on, I'm guessing it's probably the latter.

I'd place money on this. What's happening with Evergrande is exactly the same thing that happened with the 2008 financial crash. There's going to be people trying to cash out, and it will be hard to recover funds that have been converted to cryptocoins and then retrieved in another country.

[BuckGup]

49 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Totally fair

 

What happens when the US decides to ban crypto trading, then the EU follows suit, the Australia. Yeah I get this is a totally unrealistic scenario but its not impossible.

 

You are still correct though, even if it was banned globally it still wouldn't disappear.

 

I think you might have taken the decentralised comment a little out of context, they cannot shut down the block chain but they can (and did) affect the price on the market.

 

Easier? No. Easy? Yes. The shear amount of influencers running pump and dumps on their fans ATM is insane.

Influencer pump and dumps and NFTs are simply a byproduct of the new possibilities of crypto. It's no different than cellphones allowing scammers and telemarketers to call you and scam people.