According to expert Donald Tapscott, who recently had a meeting with Chinese authorities, the Renminbi (which is an official local currency) will soon become a cryptocurrency. The piece of news was made public via an interview with Bloomberg this week, precisely on April 17th.
Tapscott is currently the Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute. He revealed that he recently met with the Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party in China, who emphasized the pro-blockchain orientation of Xi Jinping, the current Chinese President. According to the leader, the technology is one of the most prominent for the future of the Asian nation.
The Renminbi (RMB) is known as the official currency of the People’s Republic of China. Its basic unit is the Yuan, which is often confused internationally with the national currency. The case is similar to that of Great Britain, where the sterling is the currency and the pound acts as the unit. The Renminbi is issued by the global authority in the matter, the People’s Bank of China.
Banning Cryptocurrency Mining
As of now, China has banned cryptocurrency exchanges, which may sound contradictory. In that regard, Tapscott stated that the country’s authorities are mulling the possibility of taking a similar path with cryptocurrency mining, too. The executive provided his insight about the subject.
“It’s not really necessary to do that [to ban exchanges and mining] because in 20 years we are not going to be using bitcoin in China. Chinese people will use the RMB, only the RMB will become a cryptocurrency. The central bank of China will turn it into a digital currency,” he said after having met with the mentioned personalities.
In the interview, Tapscott was asked whether decentralized exchanges could operate in the Asian giant, which also happens to restrict ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings.) To that, the expert replied that they could indeed operate there, but that Chinese authorities clearly want to curtail digital assets.
According to the Blockchain Research Institute leader, China will foster decentralized exchanges, even more so than centralized ones, because they have the ability to detect “bad behavior” and are most transparent overall. He says that every relevant asset in the country, even securities, will be on decentralized exchanges.
“Wasted Resources”
It is clear, and has been for quite some time, that the government wants to ban crypto mining. In fact, the National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC) included the act as part of a draft for a revised list of activities that they are targeting with the intention of shutting them down. According to the NDRC, these performances (mining included) “lacked safe production conditions, seriously wasted resources, polluted the environment,” and more.
Despite the aforementioned, China is a major force when it comes to the Bitcoin (BTC) market. Some of the largest mining pools are operated by Chinese entities, and the nation had 11 mining farms as of 2018. They stand to suffer if the NRDC plans come to fruition.
The country is also one of the most prominent places for blockchain development. China leads all nations in number of ongoing blockchain projects, with 263, the equivalent of a quarter of the worldwide production.
By: Andres Chavez
