It was a big day for Bitcoin in China: regulators are "quietly moving" away from mining operations, and it's clear why:
(1) The electricity toll on the country is massive
(2) there are more profitable geographical areas to move to, as well as other coins and...
(3) this is the big one: NEO is pre-mined, here's a little in your pocket, we're taking this rocket ship to $1000. #NEO, the so-called Ethereum of China, offers a lot of attractive out-of-the-box solutions to Bitcoin's burdens in the region.
As America wakes up to crypto and Wall Street doubles down on it, China is eons ahead with a platform that moves fast and provides startups with cookie-cutter ICO templates to get their startups going.
Which way the wind is blowing
The days of hiding your money in Bitcoin are over. Pirates don't want their gold out in the open, on a wallet that you can do police work on all the hops. More anonymous solutions are emerging, with single-use wallets that burn each time, making the money harder to follow. A clear sign that people invested in crypto don't want to move their money back to fiat, like the dollar, is the rise of Ethereum. Whereas a year ago it was difficult to buy these newer, privater coins unless you bought bitcoin first, trading websites like Binance and KuCoin have added Ethereum "pairs" that let you invest in newer technologies without touching fiat or bitcoin ever again. Why would you? While the "gold" analogy is darling its also about sites like Coinbase asking for astronomical fees and very slow transaction times to process bitcoin transactions.
The smart money is on good technology. Right now, that's NEO, Stellar, EOS, and ETH. Those projects are getting things done with very clear roadmaps and very good documentation. ICON coming out of Korea is another good one. TRON coming out of Singapore is ... well, I'll do the vaporware update on my next blog.