Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) had categorized Bitcoin mining as an industry that needs to be phased out of the country. Now it appears that the agency has different plans
NDRC removes Bitcoin mining from “industries that need to be phased out.”
NDRC is a top-level economic planning agency that works under the Chinese State Council. The agency has now published an updated version of the “Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog” (roughly translated from the Chinese language). The proposal will take effect from the start of next year i.e. first of January, 2020.
The final version would replace the previous version that was implemented back in 2011. One new development is that the agency has removed Bitcoin mining from the initiative from the category of industries that need to be removed from China. Now the final catalog has no details regarding Bitcoin mining.
NDRC was formed in 1998 and has since become one of the 26 “cabinet-level” agencies in the country. These 26 departments form the State Council of China’s central government. NDRC’s main objective is to study and develop economic reforms and policies that can be implemented at the local level administrations.
The agency had first created the reform catalog back in 2005, with the most recent version implemented in 2011. Now the agency has been working on updating the catalog and had published a draft in April this year. The draft contained “digital asset mining” under the category of industries that need to be eliminated. The agency had planned to wipe out Bitcoin mining from the country. Currently, it is estimated that China accounts for nearly half of Bitcoin’s global hash power.
It was supposed to be an indirect ban on Bitcoin mining that would be implemented slowly. However, things changed as the latest version has scrapped that idea. The agency revealed that it had received over 2,500 suggestions that, after reconsideration, made the agency scrape out the initial plan.
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