OKX Blockchain 60 Lectures | Episode 40: How did Blockchain Technology Enter China?
Hello everyone, I'm Little K. Today we're going to talk about: "How did blockchain technology enter China?"
In fact, blockchain technology entered China mainly after 2010. The outbreak of one event changed the external environment of Bitcoin, and that event was the WikiLeaks incident. At that time, because the "WikiLeaks" organization leaked US diplomatic cables, the US shut down all their fundraising channels, forcing the organization to raise funds through Bitcoin.
Although this incident caused Satoshi Nakamoto to leave the Bitcoin world, it indeed brought Bitcoin out of its original closed circle and began to attract worldwide attention. It was at this node that Bitcoin's price began to soar, and the rapidly rising price naturally attracted Chinese attention. Many Chinese media outlets began reporting on it. At the time, many science magazines in street newsstands reported on it. For example, China's earliest established IT media "Computer Newspaper" provided detailed coverage of Bitcoin and the technical principles behind it. Thus, this became the starting point for blockchain technology entering China.
In the early days, people in China who encountered Bitcoin and blockchain technology can be divided into two categories. One category was idealists who were extremely passionate about future science and technology. For example, the well-known figure Chang Jie in the industry was originally a science fiction writer who won China's highest science fiction award for three consecutive years and was hailed as the successor to Liu Cixin.
After encountering Bitcoin, he was attracted by its sci-fi attributes and libertarianism, and resolutely dedicated himself to the blockchain industry. Later, he founded China's first blockchain media. It was precisely because of this group of idealists that a solid foundation was established for spreading Bitcoin and blockchain technology in China.
The other category was completely different from the former. Most of them belonged to the so-called "internet-addicted teenagers" of that era. At that time, due to the popularity of domestic games, another industry was spawned: power leveling. They made money by selling in-game resources such as equipment, leveling, and completing tasks. Coincidentally, some science magazines at the time reported on the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin and mining tutorials. This group discovered that unlike Q coins, Bitcoin not only had a price but could also be actively obtained. So they set their sights on the mining business.
At that time, Bitcoin's price was 2-3 yuan. So they earned money by power leveling during the day and used their machines to mine at night, earning double income. In the early days of China's blockchain industry, it was mainly based on studios opened by this group, with main businesses being CPU mining and arbitrage trading.
But this period of野蛮 growth in China soon passed. With the emergence of two people, mining was quickly scaled and commercialized, opening the door to the next era. These two people were named Zhang Nangeng and Fried Cat, and their stories will be covered in the next lesson.
Overall, when blockchain first entered China, whether the early adopters were idealists or realists, they shared a common characteristic: they were young. Whether the times chose them or they created the times, this group of young people became the starting point of China's future blockchain industry, laying the foundation for the domestic blockchain industry's orientation toward the physical and industrial sectors.
Special thanks to Teacher Xiong Yue for his help and guidance with this episode's content.
Sina Weibo: @Xiong Yue
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