Classic Mainstream Media Clickbait Scare Resurfaces: ”Chinese Government Can Take Over Bitcoin”

The latest story (again) on mainstream media meant to scare away uninformed people from using bitcoin is about the possibility of China taking over the cryptocurrency. This particular FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) meme was also publicized widely in 2015 and 2016.

Also Read: The Psychology of the Cryptocurrency FOMO-FUD Cycle Has Been Weaponized

Scare Tactics

After a flood of articles about how bitcoin mining is about to consume all power sources on the face of the Earth in just a few years, leading to an unstoppable environmental catastrophe, a new attempt to gin up paranoia against the cryptocurrency resurfaces. The issue we should all be scared of now is the Chinese government taking control of bitcoin.

The article “Bitcoin at risk of Chinese sabotage” first appeared on the UK’s Sunday Telegraph and has already been republished by a number of English language newspapers as far away as Australia and New Zealand. As these type of stories get propagated, it should soon be translated into many more languages by local media partners and republished in many more regions of the world in the coming days.

Hashing Super Power

The source for the scary claim behind the headlines is a report from bitcoin “security researchers.” Two minutes of googling by the newspaper writers would have found that the two companies that they rely on are peddling their own ICOs at the moment, and that the concentration of hashing power in China is a well known issue, and that the information cited is widely available without their help.

Other than saying that the Chinese government can use its power over the miners to sabotage the Bitcoin network, the article fails to add anything new to the discussion. They even don’t mention how China tried to ban or kill bitcoin many times before, and always fail, or how the cryptocurrency is inherently designed to go around government attempts to control it. They do acknowledge that technical solutions against this eventuality exist, while others are still being developed, but say that a mere attempted attack by China can cause an irreparable loss of faith in bitcoin.

The real take away from this story is that, if you want to promote yourself as an expert on bitcoin or cyber security at the moment, all you need to do is throw the media some red meat.

Should we fear the government of China taking over bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

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