Journalist: April Cho | Editor: April Cho
Since October 19th, the Chinese communities and blockchain news media have been buzzing about a potential crackdown on the social media accounts of top blockchain media accounts. For the average American reader, however, this news might be at best interesting and at worst unrelatable, fall squarely into the category of “another day, another China censorship story.”
Considered one more time, however, this news begs another question: why is a country grappling with some pretty serious issues (including but not limited to economic inequality, serious pollution issue, and urban overpopulation) taking the time to crack down on a relatively niche community (blockchain) with proportionately small online audience.
In the world of blockchain, communities are important. Communities might include everything from informal forums on reddit to accounts on Telegraph. This means that almost every Chinese person uses WeChat as their primary means of communication-- blockchain communities included. For the uninitiated, WeChat is a direct messaging application, social network, payment system and telephone collapsed into one.
Whether in user acquisition or in powering the technology itself, blockchain technology harnesses the collective power of many individuals to push forward rather than the power of an institution. At the same time, the industry presents a high risk of political threat. After all, China today emerged from modern history defined by central planning. The mantra of blockchain and its associated uses? De-centralization.
In China, the individual activities of Chinese users in key blockchain communities like cryptocurrency exchanges and social media groups represents the possibility of the fragmentation of the political, economic and financial stability it values most.
Indeed, while China is cracking down on all individualized activities in the blockchain community-- cryptocurrency trading and blockchain media activity-- it has been heavily funding government-led research and developments in industry. In short, that China is enthusiastic about the potential for blockchain technology as long as its expansion process are tightly-monitored and centrally-controlled.
Conclusively, a closer look at thee regulatory decisions of China on these social media accounts reveal surprising insights about how the Chinese government views blockchain media and potential directions that regulations might head. It is not because China is “anti-blockchain” that China is cracking down on these regulations. The crackdowns are China’s silent but powerful acknowledgment about the potential of blockchain technology, and desire to tightly monitor its development as part of national policy.
