By
Bhushan Akolkar
August 29th, 2022
BTCC founder Bobby Lee discuses SegWit2x and China’s bitcoin exchange ban on Reddit AMA.
Several days ago, online conversation was organized between Bobby Lee, the chief executive officer of BTCC, and bitcoin traders on the Reddit AMA.
BTCC is the largest Chinese cryptocurrency exchange and one of top-five in the world. Moreover, BTCC specializes in mining pool.
That’s why the main topics of discussion were SegWit2x hard fork and the future of bitcoin in China.
The SegWit2x hard fork aims to upgrade bitcoin protocol, processed by the New York Agreement (NYA), which should be activated in approximately two weeks.
Many participants of AMA wanted to know if Bobby Lee would continue to support SegWit2x. CEO of BTCC ensured that he was interesting in “upgraded blockchain” and “will proceed with the bitcoin network upgrade in mid-November.”
“The upcoming Segwit2x feature is an upgrade to Bitcoin, and yes, there is a change in consensus rules this time. Per bitcoin rules, bitcoin will continue to be the chain that has the most accumulated hashing power and produces the longest valid blockchain,” Bobby Lee added.
Probably, his intention to support SegWit2x is based on high bitcoin interest and continuing price increase. Bitcoin, the most valued cryptocurrency, raised by 10-15% in past four days and reached another all-time high $7,000 this week. Moreover, many experts suppose that next target will be $7600 and above.
Despite of positive tendency in bitcoin price and its strength on cryptocurrency market, Bobby Lee stated that he didn’t believe in prompt changes in Chinese legislation concerning cryptocurrency market.
“I’ve also heard those rumors, but from what I can see here on the ground, there are no plans for bitcoin exchanges to reopen in China,” Lee said, “Certainly, it’s possible for policies to change in the future, as nothing is permanent in life. But change can happen in weeks or months, or take years or decades…..What positions Chinese authorities take in the future and how they regulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is really up to them,” Bobby Lee said.
In September 2017, the Chinese government, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), banned ICOs named it illegal process. This announcement led to bitcoin price drop by 40% since its high price in the beginning of September.
As for BTCC, cryptocurrency exchange had to stop domestic cryptocurrency trading at the end of September.
It should be added, that in the beginning of this year Bobby Lee shared the same opinion that it would be needed a few years before Chinese government adopted bitcoin as a legal currency and regulated cryptocurrency market.
However, his opinion doesn’t coincide with opinion of some Chinese analysts which believe in likely licensing exchanges as measures for cryptocurrency market regulation. According to CnLedger, a trusted source of cryptocurrency news in China, cryptocurrency trading can be resumed due to cryptocurrency legislation policy that can be implemented in nearest future.
