China Could Likely Turn Its National Currency Renminbi Into A Cryptocurrency, Says Expert

On Wednesday, April 17, in an interview with Bloomberg, the executive chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute - Donald Tapscott - stated that the China’s national currency Renminbi (RMB) could soon become a cryptocurrency.

Tapscott’s claims came soon after having a meeting the vice-chairman of the Communist Party in China. The vice-chairman said that China’s currency president Xi Jinping is very much bullish on the blockchain technology. Jinping believes that blockchain can set the tone for the next technical revolution.

Well, it is quite apparent as China is currently holding the maximum number of blockchain patents in the world. Despite, their ban on cryptocurrencies, China has heavily invested in developing new blockchain projects and infrastructure, in the last two years.

When asked about China’s ban on cryptocurrencies, Tapscott stated that China is also looking to ban crypto mining in the near future. However he added that “It’s not really necessary to do that [to ban exchanges and mining] because in 20 years we are not going to be using bitcoin in China. Chinese people will use the RMB, only the RMB will become a cryptocurrency. The central bank of China will turn it into a digital currency.”

Despite, the tough stand by China’s government on digital currencies, Tapscott remains hopeful that China could possibly allow decentralized exchanges to operate. He further stressed that decentralized exchanges will soon replace centralized trading platform due to their ability to easily identify bad actors and offer better transparency.

Tapscott believes that in a few years from now, all assets including the traditional securities will be trading on decentralized platforms.

Recent reports coming from China suggest that the government will soon have a crackdown on crypto mining activities. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that crypto mining activities lacked “safe production conditions, seriously wasted resources, polluted the environment,” along with other issues.

As on date, China still continues to dominate the crypto mining industry due to the abundant availability of low-cost electricity. The country hosts some of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools from industry players like Bitmain.