The official Chinese news agency Xinhua has published a report that recognizes Bitcoin (BTC) as “the first successful application of blockchain technology.”
Uniform exposure
Xinhua’s article is broadly positive and detailed in its Bitcoin coverage and the history of its development and evolution.
It opens up by raising the question of whether the currency represents the “inevitable trend of the future development of the currency or simply another exaggeration of” tulip “”. Since this formulation reproduces a long-standing industrial insight, it is possibly more inclined towards rhetorical than controversial.
The article continues to describe the central principles of blockchain as a decentralized, immutable and untrusted system for the transfer of value between peers, covering aspects such as mining, digital scarcity and the pseudonym.
It is in relation to the latter, once again, similar to the great coverage of cryptocurrencies in the main Western media, that the article points out the potential risks of Bitcoin, arguing that supposedly “the most important uses of Bitcoin payments are the transactions in the black market and the ‘dark network’ transactions. ”
Xinhua also emphasizes the volatility of Bitcoin as a currency that is not backed by a centralized sovereign power, unlike national fiat currencies.
However, the article is remarkably free of hyperbole or demonization, which led some readers to propose that the coverage represents the “first time Bitcoin received such a positive exposure” from the Chinese government.
A changing a tide?
As reported, President Xi’s recent high-profile support for blockchain innovation in recent weeks was accompanied by the signing of the first national law regulating cryptography, which governs various aspects of blockchain, which will take effect this January. .
The country’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, is also expected to become the first major global economy to launch a digital currency from the central bank, as other countries, such as Tunisia, are already beginning.
While state media have recently reiterated a cautious stance against speculative excesses in cryptocurrency trading, the country, however, seems to mitigate its former strict
opposition to activities such as Bitcoin mining.
SOURCE: cointelegraph.com
