As per Local Sources, China’s Alibaba Launches Cryptocurrency Mining Platform
China is taking every effort to reduce the dominance of any sort of cryptocurrency activity taking place within its borders. In its latest crackdown, China is trying to reduce the dominance of cryptocurrency mining activities which has increased manifold times in a past year or two, due to the availability of cheap coal and hydroelectric power.
However, in spite of all the regulations put in place to curb mining activities, local media reports show that China’s tech conglomerate and e-commerce biggie ‘Alibaba’ has silently launched a cryptocurrency mining platform. China’s Tencent News said that Alibaba launched this platform called “P2P Nodes,” on Oct. 10, 2017, with the relevant local authorities in Nanjing.
As per a rough translation, the report reads “Alibaba has recently launched a virtual currency mining platform “P2P node”, from the terms of the service agreement terms platform, the main operating platform is Alibaba East China Ltd. It is reported that the company on October 10, 2017 has been completed registration, registered in Nanjing.”
cnLedger first reported about this news saying that Alibaba might probably incorporate mining operations within its e-commerce platform.
https://twitter.com/cnLedger/status/953233563008159745
In a further development, it has come to notice that Chinese giant Tencent has registered for a “Blockchain-related trademark” for some entity that is being referred as ‘Ether lock’ or ‘Ethereum lock.’
https://twitter.com/cnLedger/status/953243115707510785
One more report from Tencent says that this operation will be a “third-party” platform which will function as a cloud mining service and will allow users to rent hash power from the company. The report further states that Alibaba is staying “very cautious” about this project. Currently, users of Alipay can withdraw cash but are not allowed to directly withdraw the coins they mine, as per the terms of service.
The authenticity of this reports can be a bit questionable as Alibaba founder - Jack Ma previously said that the company will not engage in cryptocurrencies. Rather he said that the company would focus on fiat-based finch innovations like Alipay. Jack Ma said: “I don’t think we are ready for that. Bitcoin [is] not for me.”
Moreover, this report comes at a time when China’s central bank PBoC is putting stringent regulations on cryptocurrency mining business in the country.