Cryptocoin?

[AndyH]

"China is to block all websites related to cryptocurrency trading"

Yes? And? Will this keep anyone from paying a bill with crypto? No. Will it keep anyone from sending fiat to Japan (where BTC is legal tender) and buying BTC? No. Will it keep anyone from using a VPN to access any of the world's exchanges where they can TRADE between coin pairs? No.

Beware of the intersection of incomplete reading and confirmation bias.

[WetEV]

"China is to block all websites related to cryptocurrency trading"

Yes? And? Will this keep anyone from paying a bill with crypto? No.

Mostly will be blocked. China's Great Firewall is fairly good.

Will it keep anyone from sending fiat to Japan (where BTC is legal tender) and buying BTC? No.

Hand carry the cash, sure, but better be in the allowed amounts. And why? Have to travel outside China to use the BTC.

Will it keep anyone from using a VPN to access any of the world's exchanges where they can TRADE between coin pairs? No.

Beware of the intersection of incomplete reading and confirmation bias.

Go to China and set up a real VPN to outside China. Monitored "VPN" sold on the street don't count. Cyberpunk fantasy it is not.

Reality bites.

[AndyH]

"China is to block all websites related to cryptocurrency trading"

Yes? And? Will this keep anyone from paying a bill with crypto? No.

Mostly will be blocked. China's Great Firewall is fairly good.

Will it keep anyone from sending fiat to Japan (where BTC is legal tender) and buying BTC? No.

Hand carry the cash, sure, but better be in the allowed amounts. And why? Have to travel outside China to use the BTC.

Will it keep anyone from using a VPN to access any of the world's exchanges where they can TRADE between coin pairs? No.

Beware of the intersection of incomplete reading and confirmation bias.

Go to China and set up a real VPN to outside China. Monitored "VPN" sold on the street don't count. Cyberpunk fantasy it is not.

Reality bites.

There's a difference between your 'troll (non)reality' and real reality. I prefer the latter. I actually work in this realm, Wet - daily. I am a developer for a coin, and converse with devs from other projects, and know two people in the BTC dev chain. That's why I KNOW (not guess, not troll, but KNOW for a fact) that the things you're saying are just plain flat out wrong.

'Trading' in crypto is just like trading stocks or currencies on their respective markets (I used to trade on the FOREX market). Trading is still available to users of crypto in China because they can still access exchanges even if there are no exchanges in China.

Mining is about validating the blockchain - the public ledger. Some of the larger mines are in China - they're not going anywhere. They're legal and they're desired by .gov. In order for them to work, they must be able to communicate with the global coin networks and they still can - the Great Firewall's irrelevant to that process - especially when the function is government approved.

Individual users access the same global network the miners access - it's working for them as well for the reasons stated above.

So no - the piece you linked does not say what you seem to think it says, and your comments are not accurate. You might want to find some better data sources. Just a suggestion.

[WetEV]

Mining is about validating the blockchain - the public ledger. Some of the larger mines are in China - they're not going anywhere. [ They're legal and they're desired by .gov. In order for them to work, they must be able to communicate with the global coin networks and they still can - the Great Firewall's irrelevant to that process - especially when the function is government approved.

Individual users access the same global network the miners access - it's working for them as well for the reasons stated above.

Individual users and most corporate users access the Chinese National Network, which is protected from things on the global Internet that the government doesn't want. Like the New York Times, for example. If and when it is decided that the global coin networks are on the list of unwanted things on the Internet, the global coin networks can and will be cut off.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/20 ... ectricity/

[RegGuheert]

A couple of cryptocoin articles:

Energy riches fuel bitcoin craze for speculation-shy Iceland:

Iceland is expected to use more energy “mining” bitcoins and other virtual currencies this year than it uses to power its homes.

Russia Busts Crypto Miners at Secret Nuclear Weapons Lab:

The Scientific Research Institute for Experimental Physics, where the first Soviet nuclear weapon was produced in 1949, Friday reported “an attempt at unauthorized use of the institutes’s equipment for personal needs, including so called mining.” The press release didn’t specify when the incident happened or how many people were involved.

[AndyH]

Mining is about validating the blockchain - the public ledger. Some of the larger mines are in China - they're not going anywhere. [ They're legal and they're desired by .gov. In order for them to work, they must be able to communicate with the global coin networks and they still can - the Great Firewall's irrelevant to that process - especially when the function is government approved.

Individual users access the same global network the miners access - it's working for them as well for the reasons stated above.

Individual users and most corporate users access the Chinese National Network, which is protected from things on the global Internet that the government doesn't want. Like the New York Times, for example. If and when it is decided that the global coin networks are on the list of unwanted things on the Internet, the global coin networks can and will be cut off.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/20 ... ectricity/

So...comment 1... When you want to find accurate information about a thing, go to the source. Forbes a. isn't a source b. is a communications channel of the financial status quo (in other words, these are the folks that are afraid of losing market share and have zero incentive to report positive information) and c. hasn't yet published an accurate piece on crypto...unless it's a story about Citibank's project.

As for your network comments - they're irrelevant. As I have said a number of times: Bitcoin (and other coin) mining is legal in China - and it's supported. In order to do that, the packets must flow across the border in both directions. Because blockchain traffic must flow, coin transactions are protected as well. This isn't port 80 or port 423 traffic. As I've also said, should the political winds change in China and the firewall be welded shut, the BTC network will continue in the rest of the world. Forking blockchains into different coins is practiced routinely.

As for the exchange thing...those are largely temporary. Look up lightning networks - on-chain exchanges without an 'entity' in between.

[cwerdna]

Cryptocurrency expert arrested for giving talk to North Korea about avoiding sanctions | ZDNet
Virgil Griffith, a member of the Ethereum project, faces up to 20 years in prison for breaking US sanctions.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cryptocur ... sanctions/