Chinese Company Alibaba Bans Sales of Cryptocurrency Miners

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Alibaba says no to cryptocurrency

Bitmain ASIC Miner
(Image credit: Bitmain)

Chinese technology giant Alibaba announced today that it would prohibit the sale of all goods and services related to cryptocurrency mining. This decision comes after the People's Bank of China announcement that all crypto-related transactions are illegal.

Alibaba is China's biggest e-commerce platform and generally a huge technology influencer. The official company announcement came after the People's Bank of China, the official financial institution of China, decided to make all crypto-related transactions illegal. 

Alibaba announced that all crypto-related sales would be treated as sales of illegal items starting on October 8, 2021. The mandate covers all virtual currency miners and services related to virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, BeaoCoin, QuarkCoin, Ethereum, and others.

The ban also covers any hardware or software used to obtain these virtual currencies, in addition to any tutorials about cryptocurrency. Further, the company also closed the 'Blockchain Miner Accessories' and 'Blockchain Miners' categories.

The ban becomes effective on October 8, and it's clear that the Chinese government wants to remove any traces of cryptocurrency from the country, even blocking tutorials and other written instructions on how to mine the currency, which is a clear strike to censor any and all information pertaining to cryptocurrencies. 

Aleksandar Kostovic
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • artk2219
    You mean an authoritarian government with strict market controls doesn't want others to have a way to buy things or move assets that they cant have direct control over? I cant tell you how shocked I am that its production and associated sales of production equipment has been made illegal, what a stunning turn of events.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    artk2219 said:
    You mean an authoritarian government with strict market controls doesn't want others to have a way to buy things that they cant have direct control over? I cant tell you how shocked I am that its production and associated sales of production equipment has been made illegal, what a stunning turn of events.
    China is having rolling blackouts due to insufficient power production that has been credited with a loss of 10-12% of economic growth. Since crypto is used to illegally exfiltrate wealthy out of China, banning all crypto kills two birds with one stone: it frees up several GWs worth of electric power to alleviate blackouts and stops people from trafficking their wealth out of China without paying taxes.

    The IRS and many other tax agencies around the world have their eyes on crypto too for being a tax evasion and criminal organization financing vehicle. China is only the first with a blanket ban, I expect many more to follow sooner or later.
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    I believe China's gov't is more interested in the money invested in the current real estate problems (see Evergrande) not leaving the country through coin-exchanges. They want the money to stay invested in the country, even if it's not in the real estate companies. (Edit: also, the power problems, as stated above)

    But whatever the reasons are, I'm good with the ban. I hope more countries stop allowing conversion to local currency (like the US), and then all of the power and semiconductor resources can go into more productive uses than cryptocoin speculation & ransomware payment-enabling. If I never read another story of how a coal-burning power plant is being "repurposed" to supply power for mining, then that's a great win environmentally. Getting the GPUs being bought up by miners back into the hands of the long-time users of them - gamers - would be nice. But even more important, all of the industries who can't get enough processors - more semiconductor resources should be available to them. A worldwide ban would be fine with me - only ones who lose are the ones who were speculating (gambling) in uncertain futures.
    Reply
  • targetdrone
    2Be_or_Not2Be said:
    I believe China's gov't is more interested in the money invested in the current real estate problems (see Evergrande) not leaving the country through coin-exchanges. They want the money to stay invested in the country, even if it's not in the real estate companies. (Edit: also, the power problems, as stated above)

    But whatever the reasons are, I'm good with the ban. I hope more countries stop allowing conversion to local currency (like the US), and then all of the power and semiconductor resources can go into more productive uses than cryptocoin speculation & ransomware payment-enabling. If I never read another story of how a coal-burning power plant is being "repurposed" to supply power for mining, then that's a great win environmentally. Getting the GPUs being bought up by miners back into the hands of the long-time users of them - gamers - would be nice. But even more important, all of the industries who can't get enough processors - more semiconductor resources should be available to them. A worldwide ban would be fine with me - only ones who lose are the ones who were speculating (gambling) in uncertain futures.

    Which Legacy institution are you a shill for?
    Reply
  • daworstplaya
    Great news. Now if only more governments around the world would grow a spin and ban anything to do with monopoly money, gamers could actually buy GPUs at affordable prices.
    Reply
  • LolaGT
    People that think this is great news have no idea what they are talking about.
    Those people should go live in China and experience government control.
    China has their own government backed digital currency and are just eliminating any competition.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    LolaGT said:
    People that think this is great news have no idea what they are talking about.
    Those people should go live in China and experience government control.
    China has their own government backed digital currency and are just eliminating any competition.
    Poor people from China can't afford to crypto-mine in any significant capacity or traveling out of the country to make use of it elsewhere. It is mostly Chinese millionaires and billionaires using mining to traffic their wealth out of the country.

    As far as "digital currencies" go, practically all currencies are digital today when you make online payments, use debit or credit cards. You don't need ludicrously power-inefficient crypto for that.
    Reply
  • Dr3ams
    The overlords don't want any crypto competition from the peasants.

    Since I'm not a miner and could care less about their woes, I hope that other governments do the same. Then maybe I can finally finish upgrading my PC...which means trade in my RX 570 for something with more juice.
    Reply
  • Dr3ams
    InvalidError said:
    The IRS and many other tax agencies around the world have their eyes on crypto too for being a tax evasion and criminal organization financing vehicle. China is only the first with a blanket ban, I expect many more to follow sooner or later.

    Governments will ban crypto currencies only when it's not profitable for them to mine it themselves. At the moment crypto is free cash for any government who uses tax money to build mining farms.
    Reply
  • Krotow
    Dr3ams said:
    At the moment crypto is free cash for any government who uses tax money to build mining farms.

    And what is good from cash who have fluctuating exchange rate from 30% up to infinity in a day? Besides other problems for regular consumers. And it is even not a cash, but some imaginary digits.
    Reply