http://bitcoinblog.de/2014/04/12/its-not-a-survivors-game-its-a-losers-game/
(cc) Ravi Chahal / flickr.com
(cc) Jorge Láscar / flickr.com
‘It’s not a survivor’s game. It’s a loser’s game.’
(cc) Ravi Chahal / flickr.com
A few days in the life of a Chinese Bitcoiner. Zhang Weiwu meets the CEO of a large exchange and is surprised to find himself in a conversation about its future. Here, he explains why the Chinese think China is the world and finds out that the biggest Chinese exchange really might shut down, while he waits for his plane to Saigon.
I waited at the airport for my plane to Saigon (which was, like all Chinese planes, late), while Huobi, the largest Chinese BTC exchange, announced that their bank would be shutting down their account. As I waited I checked the charts and watched the crash. I was angry that I had missed the bottom – it didn’t go as deep as I had expected. At the same time, I should have been happy, since the news meant I’d won the argument. That’s a really rare experience in China, and I was also worried that he’d lost face. The Chinese don’t usually argue. Arguing is like fighting, and since fighting is bad, discussions have to be approached carefully.
I’d had a meeting with the CEO of a big exchange. It was he who had invited me in the first place to his big office with a sizeable tea set and table, on which he had no time to finish a brief tea ceremony. Not only was the tea ceremony cut short, but he said in a sorry tone, ‘everything else, too. I’ve been running this Bitcoin exchange business for a year and I never had weekends in that time.’ He told me everything about his business, with a frankness the Chinese often cannot afford.
‘Take it or leave it be. I still think we can play big.’
He said: ‘I asked for this meeting for a reason. The Bitcoin game is going down, and we need to fight every last inch. It started when BTCChina announced 0% fee, and it will end soon. As with everything else in China, the survivor is the winner. You are among the earliest adopters in China. You’ve been a CEO. You look like someone who can handle yourself. We should be partner and join forces.’
I answered: ‘As frank as you have been to me, I am afraid PBOC meant it seriously. It doesn’t matter what they order, it matters what they intend, and they intend to put Bitcoin out of the picture. It’s not a survivor’s game. It’s a loser’s game.’
The other half of the afternoon was spent in discussion.
He: ‘PBOC needs Bitcoin to counter USD dominance.’
I: ‘PBOC is the wealthiest organisation this world have ever seen. They are too lofty to make use of bitcoin.’
He: ‘FxBTC could be lying to quit business quietly.’
I: ‘Why should they want to quit business in the wake of a site-wide upgrade with new branding?’
He: ‘You have to believe in something in order to run a successful business!’
I: ‘And to think critically to decide whether to invest in it in the first place!’
The debate went on. I feel like I hadn’t had this kind of discussion in Chinese for years. It made me feel like a foreigner in my own land. Finally he said, ‘Take it or leave it be. I still think we can play big.’
‘Play big, but not on this turf. There are more business to run than exchanges, and there are more places than China. You know what? I am thinking of Hong Kong, and then South America. They’ve always had currency problems waiting for solutions; Chinese businessmen already gather there, and Latin American people don’t have a big central power to be afraid of Bitcoin. We have a world to conqueror!’
He laid open his hands, sighed, and said, ‘You know there is no world beyond China.’
http://bitcoinblog.de/2014/04/03/exclusive-truth-and-rumor-and-chinese-perspective-on-the-situation-of-chinese-exchanges/
Exclusive: Truth and Rumor. A chinese perspective on the situation of chinese exchanges
(cc) Jorge Láscar / flickr.com
A Chinese perspective on developments in China. Our author, Zhang Weiwu, lives in China and has been active in the Bitcoin scene since 2011. Here, he explains how to understand the current rumours about the so-called ‘Bitcoin ban’ on April 15th, why not everything means what it seems to in China, and how the Chinese exchanges will comply with the legislation.
Top Chinese exchange Huobi, whose name means ‘Fire Coin’ in Chinese, must be feeling the heat today: in a pre-emptive move, it is closing 3rd party payments for cash deposits before being forced to do so. It has also made a lengthy announcement, stating that its banks have not received an order to close their accounts – yet. Will they meet the same end as their smaller competitors, BTC38 and FxBTC, who made rare headlines today when they announced that they were stopping bank deposits, stating that their banks had received an order from the PBOC to close their accounts? Or worse, will they suffer the same fate as BTCIG.com, an even smaller competitor, whose website simply went offline today.
Should I feel flattered? I made this prediction in bitcointalk before both the height of the China frenzy and bottom of its crash, and I was right both times. I was even right about the method in this post, from 9 th January: ‘It [the Chinese government] will not declare a war against bitcoin but cripple bitcoin operations in China.’
Many consider the Chinese government to be capricious. Are you banning bitcoin? Are you allowing it? What do you mean by saying individuals are allowed to trade Bitcoin, if you’re forcing all your exchanges’ bank accounts to close?
Read more for 0.0011 BTC (around 40 cent)
Bitcoin : The Future of Currency ?
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