Chinese State Media Praise Bitcoin as a “Successful Application of Blockchain”

Blockchain fever overruns the people’s republic

Bitcoin propaganda comes as China preps to launch digital currency in 2020

China has taken yet another step towards fully embracing Bitcoin, calling it “The First successful application of blockchain technology.”

The entirety of the people’s republic has been on a blockchain hype beyond anything thing imaginable recently. However, this latest admission from Chinese state media has transcended the strange grey area between bitcoin and blockchain. Finally, despite years of denouncing, and outlawing the nascent tech, China has actually shown some support for BTC.

Bitcoin, Not Just Blockchain

The news came via Matthew Graham, CEO of Sino Global Capital. Graham shared an article from the Xinhua News Agency, a state-run media outlet cited as one of the most influential news organizations in the world.

The article, entitled, “Bitcoin: The First Successful Application of Blockchain Technology,” lays out the intricacies of bitcoin, and attempts to filter between hype and what the Xinhua dubs “future currency development.”

The article includes an in-depth explanation of how bitcoin works, including the ins and outs of private and public keys, mining, a brief explanation of the halving protocol – and even more surprisingly – a spotlight on bitcoin’s afforded anonymity. The latter, however, is followed up by a rhetorical caveat of BTC’s illicit use – this is still mainstream media, after all.

Regardless, this acts to expose a vast number of Chinese citizens to bitcoin. While readership statistics of the Xinhua aren’t disclosed, it stands as one of the sole distributors of the Communist Party of China’s Propaganda, boasting over 107 news offices worldwide and 31 bureaus in China.

Propper Praise or Propaganda?: China’s Digital Currency May Launch in 2020

This follows several bullish weeks for blockchain in China, as the country starts to roll out nationwide adoption of the technology. It all started back in October when China’s Premier, Jinping Xi, called to “seize the opportunity” of blockchain. Since that time, initiatives ranging from blockchain subsidies to the use of blockchain within smart cities, have become rampant up and down the country. Even more shocking was the removal of bitcoin mining from the list of industries China may eliminate, providing new hope for China’s bitcoin mining industry.

Of course, while this seems like a positive on the whole, it’s highly likely that all this hype around bitcoin and blockchain is merely China prepping for its imminent digital currency.

In fact, according to Jack Lee of HCM Capital, China could launch the central bank digital currency (CBDC) as early as 2020. Speaking to CNBC, Lee explained the reason behind the countries blockchain push, implying that the technology was perfect for China’s predilection towards tracking money. Lee also highlighted China’s development of the DCEP or digital currency electronic payment. This new system will apparently act as a hybrid third party payment network, connecting the PBoC to commercial banks, digitalizing China’s financial system.

Nevertheless, the fact that bitcoin is being mentioned at all still stands as a fairly momentous occasion. Whether China is harnessing bitcoin and blockchain for its CBDC propaganda or not, there are still positives to glean from this. Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens have been exposed to a relatively unbias article on bitcoin. This can only serve to seed further adoption.