China Quarantines Cash to Prevent Coronavirus From Spreading, Not an Issue With Bitcoin

According to some reports, China has begun a quarantine of its used cash in order to stop coronavirus proliferation. In the meantime, the crypto community started to comment on the news, stating that Bitcoin as a means of payment might help prevent coronavirus from spreading with China’s cash.

More confirmed cases of the epidemic outbreak

Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, registered about 15,000 new cases and 242 new deaths in just 24 hours after provincial authorities decided to change their method for diagnosing cases on February 13. Dovey Wan, founding partner of Primitive Crypto said that government does not report the full numbers.

BBC’s recent report outlined 2,009 new cases and 142 more deaths. Official figures indicate, that the total number of cases is estimated in over 68,000, and the death toll is at 1,665.

Coronavirus affecting the crypto market

Chinese crypto mines reportedly being closed seems to have had little to no impact on Bitcoin (BTC) network hash rate. The network seems to be performing better that ever, as hash rate continues to rise.

Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics, said that the impact on the market may not be visible right now, “How it will affect Bitcoin’s price, I really couldn’t tell you. At the moment, I don’t feel like it is.” In the meantime, a representative for mining hardware producer Bitmain said that they are not feeling any impact at all.

Launch of CoronaCoin

While the crypto community discusses the possibilities of Bitcoin to halt the proliferation of coronavirus in China through cash, a Coronavirus based ERC-20 corona-coin (NCOV) has been introduced, according to a Reddit post. As its official website says, it is designed to spread awareness about the coronavirus outbreak.