Published via Ecency

The Chinese government, known for its position on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, seems to be slowly changing its mind ...

According to the People's Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC), Li Bo, the government sees Bitcoin as "an alternative investment", which helps raise Bitcoin's position in China.

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At the Boao Asia Forum in 2021, Li Bo said:

"The People's Bank of China has listed Bitcoin and Stablecoins as cryptocurrencies ... in which Bitcoin can be considered one of the investment alternatives."

"The main role we see for cryptographic assets in the future is an alternative investment," said the PBoC deputy governor."

In the past, China did not completely like Bitcoin, and the country's governing body has repeatedly criticized investments in cryptocurrencies. In 2019, China issued a ban on Bitcoin trading and imposed very large fines on companies that accepted Bitcoin.

But now, however, China has taken Bitcoin more seriously as an alternative investment.

The country is developing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) and is currently in the final stages of development ahead of a national launch.

The Chinese digital currency will be put to the "transactional test" at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Speaking about the development of the CBDC, Li Bo said: “We do not want to compete with any country and we do not even try not to replace the US dollar as some people speculate, our CBDC development only aims to build a better financial system and to facilitate trade ”.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley legend Peter Thiel warned that "Bitcoin may be China's secret weapon, they will use Bitcoin to weaken the US dollar's position."

Although China sees Bitcoin as an alternative investment when it comes to cryptocurrency mining, the country is still quite strong. In the last few months, China has taken control of cryptocurrency "mines", and the Inner Mongolia region intends to ban the extraction of cryptocurrencies to reduce energy consumption.