The Chinese media has raised concerns regarding the use of cryptocurrency, as it is facilitating and fueling corruption among government officials.
LegalDaily, a local Chinese media outlet, reported that digital currencies, electronic gift cards, and other forms of virtual currencies have opened a new corruption channel, with them widely used for illicit transfers in the country.
The article elaborates that these newly introduced payment methods, such as electronic gift cards and cryptocurrencies, are becoming common in government official bribes. The use of such payment systems is difficult to trace and track due to their massive and unbound security characteristics.
According to Mo Hongxian, a professor at Wuhan University Law School, the emergence of this new type of corruption has brought major problems. He said that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin are not recognized in China, but in reality, they serve equivalent functions.
“There are two problems with the use of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin to commit corruption. First, it is difficult to crack down on supervision, especially distributed peer-to-peer virtual currencies such as encrypted digital currencies, which exist without the ‘medium’ of institutions such as banks and use keys. […] Second, it is difficult to identify and process,” said Mo.
The report also states the importance and need for counter-actions against the evolving threat of illicit cryptocurrency transactions.
China has been a long-time critic of cryptocurrency, with the country banning activities relating to cryptocurrency and releasing several restrictions a number of times. However, it is also focusing on the safe use of blockchain technology by introducing numerous state-backed public initiatives.
Also Read: China Reveals OTC King Zhao Dong’s 7-Year Sentence Details
