This weekly roundup of news from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s top news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and corporate blockchain integrations.
Could green miners get a pass?
Last week’s column looked at the latest crackdown on cryptocurrency miners as China moves towards more carbon-neutral policies. This week, China’s southwestern province hummed a slightly different tune when the Sichuan Energy Regulatory Office organized a symposium on the subject. The province has a strong mining concentration due to the inexpensive energy generated from a developed hydropower system. The symposium failed to find a solution, leading to speculation that the province’s green energy will lead to much more positive regulation.
Zhang Nangeng, CEO of mining equipment maker Canaan, added to those speculations by asking China to consider environmentally friendly miners. “For-profit miners prefer regions with low electricity prices that indicate oversupply and likely waste of energy. Bitcoin miners also help to create jobs in impoverished regions and contribute to the tax fund, ”emphasized the CEO. It seems unlikely that China will continue to allow miners to abuse coal-fired power in regions like Inner Mongolia, but there is definitely an argument in favor of lucrative mining in Sichuan.
Uniswap carpet attracts on state television
On June 2, the national television broadcaster CCTV-13 reported in its newsroom segment on fraud with virtual currencies. In the report, they presented how a virtual currency TRTC was listed on Uniswap before all liquidity was removed. Blockchain smart contract auditor SlowMist was also featured when it demonstrated how the fraudulent activities were carried out. In the TRTC case, 59 ETH were removed from the pools worth around $ 100,000. CCTV-13 concluded with a warning about the risks of financial fraud on cryptocurrency platforms like Uniswap. On Twitter, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams falsely tweeted about the segment, mistaking the video clip for a positive report. Apparently, Adams didn’t spend as much time practicing his tangerine as other early Ethereum pioneers Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood, both of whom are very good at the language.
BS and C?
In a Chinese-language interview on May 29, Binance founder CZ distanced himself further from Binance Smart Chain by claiming that he had no control over the chain and was not responsible for its creation. He shyly hinted that BSC was a collaborative venture and that he rarely spoke to the team behind it. Binance and competing Chinese exchanges may rethink their positioning after a series of hacks and exploits plagued the various “smart chains” that provide further benefits to the exchange of tokens and their users.
Blockchain, not Bitcoin
Despite the increasingly tough regulatory environment, China has not given up its technology-friendly stance. On May 31st, new standards for blockchain technicians were released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The standards detail what skills and core competencies are required to work in the industry.
$ 6.2 million CBDC airdrop
Beijing is launching another digital yuan lottery to further advance the release of the central bank digital currency. Beijing local financial regulator and administration announced on June 2 that the government would distribute the free currency to citizens who apply before June 7. It did so the same week that former People’s Bank of China director Yao Qian stated that the digital yuan was not allowed to be used as a surveillance tool. He claimed the technology was originally developed to counter the private sector’s control over the payments sector. The Western world may remain skeptical on this point, but the need to balance the private sector is certainly plausible given the national dominance of Alipay and WeChat.
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