Yao Qian, author of the article, is the Deputy Director of Science and Technology Department of People ‘s Bank of China and Director of Digital Currency Research Institute of PBOC. The article is a commentary piece for the report Digital Currency Research by Xie Ping.

The whole passage has around 7,000 words and below is a TL;DR version.

1. Bitcoin is not a currency but it could be a “quasi-currency”.

2. ICTO (Initial Crypto Token Offering) is more accurate term for ICO. Although many ICOs have no value, such activities are helpful to the ecosystem.

3. ICO’s return is very high. Ethereum, NXT and Zcash are mentioned.

4. Regulation could go easy on the top 10 ICO projects in terms of market value.

5. Regulatory Sandbox approach could be adopted towards ICO. Prudent tolerance is accepted but it must no go wild. A legal framework for ICO should be established ASAP. If an ICO project has no intrinsic value, it’s a ponzi scheme.

6. Ethereum could overtake Bitcoin.

7. Mutual development between smart contract and Ethereum. Ethereum is working on the right direction.

8. Only fiats could become the cornerstone of next-generation financial infrastructure and the future of digital economic development.

9. Blockchain technology doesn’t have to be bundled with digital currency. It’s an optional technology and a tool.

10. The strength of fiat money lies in: assimilating advanced and mature technology of private quasi-digital-currency and inheriting merits of traditional currency

As regulation on ICO is still absent in most countries, Yao’s attitude, as a senior official of PBOC, could be interpreted as that of China’s highest regulatory authority.

Changjia, founder and CEO of 8btc, expressed the optimism on the legal framework for ICO:



As the earliest adopter of ICO in China, Bizhongchou has explored the possibilities in terms of investor education, project review and KYC through self discipline with the absence of legal framework. We look forward to the implementation of regulatory sandbox.

Recently, Bizhongchou has launched PUSH feature for the QTUM tokens.