China looks to ban cryptomining

[midian182]

In brief: Its popularity might have taken a massive tumble in recent times, but cryptocurrency mining certainly hasn’t disappeared. The practice may shrink even further in China, however, where authorities want to ban the sector.

The National Development Reform Commission wants to restrict or eliminate a number of industries as they “seriously wasted resources,” are safety risks, can have legal implications, or damage the environment. Among those activities on a draft version of the revised list is cryptocurrency mining.

The public has until May 7 to comment on the draft. Any ban would come into effect as soon as the final version is published.

Bloomberg notes that China was once home to about 70 percent of Bitcoin mining and 90 percent of trades, but authorities have been trying to shrink the industry due to concerns over bubbles, fraud, and the waste it produces. Initial coin offerings (IPOs) and were banned and local exchanges told to stop cryptocurrency trading in 2017.

Last year saw the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) ask local authorities to regulate bitcoin miners’ power usage to reduce the scale of their production slowly.

According to a report in Nature Sustainability (via Gizmodo), crypto mining emits anywhere between 3 million and 15 million tons of carbon dioxide globally.

The news comes a week after Bitcoin and other cryptos saw an unexpected surge. After hitting a low of around $3,200 in December and staying below $4,000 for most of this year, Bitcoin jumped suddenly above $5,000 for the first time since last November and is currently at around $5,260—it appears China’s plans haven’t negatively affected the price.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79573-china-looks-ban-cryptomining.html

 

[JamesJamesJames]

It's interesting how bad news stories always come out just after a pump. It's like clockwork....

 

[p51d007]

The only reason the Communist government of China doesn't want it, is because they can't really control it.
People might be able to "make money" without going through the government, for which they WON'T receive their "share". In a communist government, it's all about control, one way or the other.
It's a shame more and more capitalist governments are going that way as well.

 

[Knot Schure]

Hello from China.

My wallet syncs just fine.

THIS is the reason crypto exists - NO government can control / manipulate, nor prevent it.

Sweet.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Thank goodness. Bitcoin is a total waste of resources. Let's bring video cards back to normal prices. I haven't noticed any big technology jumps from all the cash video card companies raked in to take advantage of us.

 

[EEatGDL]

Thank goodness. Bitcoin is a total waste of resources. Let's bring video cards back to normal prices. I haven't noticed any big technology jumps from all the cash video card companies raked in to take advantage of us.

I understand the sentiment, but BTC hasn't been mined with GPUs for a long time. GPUs were last used for ETH.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Thank goodness. Bitcoin is a total waste of resources. Let's bring video cards back to normal prices. I haven't noticed any big technology jumps from all the cash video card companies raked in to take advantage of us.

I understand the sentiment, but BTC hasn't been mined with GPUs for a long time. GPUs were last used for ETH.

Did you miss the part of the article where its talking about banning all cryptos, not just Bitcoin?

 

[ShagnWagn]

I understand the sentiment, but BTC hasn't been mined with GPUs for a long time. GPUs were last used for ETH.

Thank you for the clarification. GPU's are still prohibitively expensive (for me). We are still way above the curve on price/performance.

 

[redgarl]

People are funny... it has nothing to do with CONTROL of crypto. It is related to the electricity wasted for such an activity. This electricity is provided with colt combustion and impact air quality all over the country. Not to mention that China is not able to provide enough power for their own people.

People defending crypto are not conscious of the environmental impacts it generates. The energy summary of such a practice is as disastrous as ethanol production with corn fields.

 

[EEatGDL]

Did you miss the part of the article where its talking about banning all cryptos, not just Bitcoin?

Did you miss the part where ShagnWagn wrote "Bitcoin"? I'm replying to someone, not to the article, smart guy.

 

[Markoni35]

No government can control it, but certain secret groups and corporations can. Which is even more dangerous. Because there is zero control or laws in case of a scam. As we could saw a year ago, when they pumped BitCoin up and then deflated it, stealing trillions of money. Who stole it? We don't know. Some secretive group.

Not to mention that we don't even know who are the founders of the most important cryptocurrency. Again, some secret group using a fake name of "Satoshi" to cover their tracks. Do we really want to trust all of our money to a group of people that are hiding under a fake name? Do we really want our savings to be as "stable" as BitCoin was in 2018?

Sorry... but for now, fiat money rocks, and crypto is the source of scam and losses, except for a few. Which doesn't really help in establishing its credibility.

 

[Uncle Al]

Sounds more like they have gotten as much as they can out of it and are starting to get hit on my N. Korea .....

 

[Nobina]

Even if they can't control it they will do whatever they can to regulate it or ban it. You have to be born yesterday to think any government will let this slide, not just China. So if you have the balls to risk it, sure, go ahead and dabble with it.

 

[treetops]

No government can control it, but certain secret groups and corporations can. Which is even more dangerous. Because there is zero control or laws in case of a scam. As we could saw a year ago, when they pumped BitCoin up and then deflated it, stealing trillions of money. Who stole it? We don't know. Some secretive group.

Not to mention that we don't even know who are the founders of the most important cryptocurrency. Again, some secret group using a fake name of "Satoshi" to cover their tracks. Do we really want to trust all of our money to a group of people that are hiding under a fake name? Do we really want our savings to be as "stable" as BitCoin was in 2018?

Sorry... but for now, fiat money rocks, and crypto is the source of scam and losses, except for a few. Which doesn't really help in establishing its credibility.

Every time it jumped down it was after a country said they banned it, it's not rocket science.

 

[NightAntilli]

People are funny... it has nothing to do with CONTROL of crypto. It is related to the electricity wasted for such an activity. This electricity is provided with colt combustion and impact air quality all over the country. Not to mention that China is not able to provide enough power for their own people.

People defending crypto are not conscious of the environmental impacts it generates. The energy summary of such a practice is as disastrous as ethanol production with corn fields.

Or maybe, just maybe, it has everything to do with the control of crypto, and electricity is simply the excuse. When was the last time any institution complained about resources being used to create nuclear bombs and war machines that kill people by the millions? Where are the green warriors on that?

Crypto comes in a variety of forms. Sure. There is proof of work, which is what Bitcoin uses, and it costs a lot of electricity. There is also proof of stake, where all you need to do is be online. That can be done with one's phone, which is already on all the time anyway. There is ZERO legitimate reason to ban all cryptos, when a large portion of them rely on the second method, which is not exactly a waste of resources.

Crypto is being demonized left and right, simply because it is a direct threat to the current establishment.