PBOC: Bitcoin can’t be legitimate for payments

Zhou Xiaochua, the Governor of the People’s Bank of China, has uncovered that the Asian country’s major financial institution doesn’t accept Bitcoin as well as any other crypto assets as legitimate forms of payment.

As Reuters states, China’s annual parliament session occurred on Friday and Zhou Xiaochua had an opportunity to address the current scope of digital currencies in this country with journalists. He pointed out that China’s key bank doesn’t officially recognize Bitcoin as well as any other crypto stuff as something equal to conventional paper money, credit cards and coins for retail payments.

Following Zhou’s statements, Beijing initially backed the creation of the blockchain. Moreover, the Chinese government managed to implement some of the currently existing technology in some sectors of the country’s economy. Nevertheless, worries over the fast application of the technology were overwhelming and generated concerns over the hypothetical risks associated with it.

Zhou stressed that if they managed to spread too quickly, it might have rather a huge adverse impact on customer. Additionally, it could have a number of unpredictable effects on the country’s financial stability as well as monetary policy transmission.

Crypto assets have been the topic of discussion among China’s watchdogs for the last year. Having clamped down on crypto trading, shutting crypto exchanges, the Asian country made its way to the next level in September of 2017, by rolling out an absolute ban of ICOs in the country. By the way, the clampdown was imposed unexpectedly, without notice and from the very beginning it provoked a powerful reaction across the market.

The crackdown wasn’t enough for China, and it went further. The next step involved addressing the rapidly extending sector of Bitcoin mining because of the ascending number of mining operations in the country. The authorities urged mining businesses to start exiting the country.