China Puts Out Mixed Messages About Its Cryptocurrency Launch

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In recent comments from China, it appears as if the launch of the much-anticipated central bank controlled cryptocurrency may not be as close as expected. It has been speculated that China would be launching its own cryptocurrency as early as November 11, but there are conflicting reports from the country. 

China has been working on its own cryptocurrency for some time now, especially in the wake of their decision to ban ICOs, then ban access to the traditional decentralized cryptocurrencies of which they had no control over.  

In China there is a strong belief in the power of blockchain and even in what can be accomplished with the digital tokens that are part of the ecosystem, however there are also concerns about the lack of control that emanates from things like Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies. 

This has led the People’s Bank of China to start work on creating its own blockchain-based token in which it would have control over. This token was intended to be rolled out through a number of banks and even the countries major E-commerce store, Alibaba. 

More and more news was becoming available in recent weeks and months as it also emerged that China felt that Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency could be seen as competition for their offering and thus they felt they had to start upping the development and set a due date. However, recent news seems to be conflicting with that as it has been said there is still a lot of work to be done before the coin is launched. 

Not ready yet

It has now been reported that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is denying that Beijing is ready for the coin to be launched and, in fact, that they do not even have a timetable to set a date for its official launch. 

Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, has told a press conference in Beijing that China's research and development of digital currency has achieved positive progress, but the country has no timetable to launch a digital currency so far.

Yi said that there is no presupposition for a tech roadmap of digital currency R&D, and that blockchain (a digital, public ledger that records online transactions) will be considered to develop a digital currency.

The plan to combine the digital currency with electronic payments aims to activate the Chinese market, Yi said.  

If the digital currency is to be used in cross-border business, more regulation requirements relat-ed to anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and anti-tax havens need to be put in place, according to Yi.

The Libra factor?

Perhaps it could also be that the Chinese are aware of the struggles that Libra is having in getting its own cryptocurrency off the ground and that they no longer feel the same pressure to launch their coin before the Facebook coin.

Libra has been under constant regulatory pressure across the globe which the likes of the US, India, France, Germany and of course China, strongly against the coin. Despite all that, Facebook is still adamant that they will be launching the coin in 2020 as first stipulated,

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