The Strategist

China to ban Bitcoin mining



04/09/2019 - 15:33



The National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) wants to ban Bitcoin mining, Reuters reports.



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pixabay
The Commission submitted for public comment a revised list of industries that it intends to promote, restrict or prohibit.

The draft revised list adds mining of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, to more than 450 activities that, from the point of view of the NDRC, should be banned because they do not comply with current laws and regulations, are unsafe, lead to waste of resources or environmental pollution.

The document does not specify date or plan for stopping mining of bitcoins, which implies that such activity should be stopped immediately. Public discussions of the document will continue until May 7.

The cryptocurrency sector has been under the scrutiny of the Chinese authorities since 2017, when regulators began to prohibit initial coin offerings (ICO) and closed the local cryptocurrency exchanges.

An inter-ministerial working group in China also instructed provincial authorities to "actively promote" cessation of mining of cryptocurrencies by local companies. This prompted the miners to look for new sites.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies are among the largest manufacturers of bitcoin mining equipment. Last year, three companies applied for an initial public offering in Hong Kong, seeking to raise billions of dollars in an IPO.

source: reuters.com