According to a number of news agencies, including Reuters, a legislative framework may be prepared in China to ban the mining of cryptocurrencies. China's regulatory body, the National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC), has published a draft listing of industries that require support, restrictions or bans. The previous such document was prepared 8 years ago. Discussion of the new list, which has not yet been finalized, will continue publicly until May 7. In other words, the ban on cryptocurrency mining in China has not yet acquired the status of a final decision.
This is not the first attempt to limit the activities of the cryptocurrency market in China. Legislators in the Celestial Empire began actively looking after companies in this new sector in 2017. At the same time, a ban was issued on conducting ICOs (initial sale of cryptocurrency to shareholders) and restrictions were introduced on the operation of exchanges selling cryptocurrencies. In a new round of confrontation between the state and the freedom to issue digital money, cryptocurrency may completely leave the legal scene in China. Not the best way to solve the problem. In such cases, it is much more effective to lead the process rather than prohibit it.
In the draft NDRC, in addition to cryptocurrency, you can find another 450 industries that can be recognized as harmful, dangerous, posing a threat of pollution or excessive consumption of resources. Indeed, cryptocurrency mining requires an electricity budget comparable to the consumption of a number of small countries. Meanwhile, generating electricity mainly uses non-renewable minerals, which are not infinite. And the atmosphere from emissions of combustion products at power plants does not become cleaner.
On the other hand, Chinese companies have become the leading developers of ASICs for cryptocurrency mining. This is a multi-billion dollar business. This also cannot be discounted. So Chinese society has something to discuss. There are a lot of arguments both for banning cryptocurrency mining and in defense of this process.
Source: 3dnews.ru