Proposal To Form China’s First Bitcoin Advocacy Group To Test Government Attitude

Established in 2012, the Bitcoin Foundation has quite a few titles – It is a ‘top trade organization’, an ‘unofficial organisation to represent the interests of Bitcoin’, a Bitcoin ‘lobbying group’ and ‘one of the world’s leading advocacy groups for the cybercurrency’, to name a few. Although not everyone in the Bitcoin community agrees as to what the Foundation’s role is, there is little doubt that it is one of the most high-profile nonprofit organizations in the space, with some of the most recognizable Bitcoin luminaries serving on the board.
In a move reminiscent of the Bitcoin Foundation’s original establishment, a man named Ryan Xu has called for the formation of a China-focused bitcoin advocacy group.
Originally posted on Yibite.com, the Chinese bitcoin news website on 8th November, Xu’s proposal generated a moderate amount of social media comments in its immediate aftermath. Though judging by people’s response, the interest was not strong, such a proposal nonetheless raises questions as to whether China needs its own bitcoin advocacy group, and whether such an organization would be viable in the current regulatory environment.
In his 930-character long proposal for a ‘Bitcoin Development Foundation’ (BDF), Xu outlines five issues that it seeks to tackle:

This post was published at Forbes on 12/08/2014.