The head of the People’s Bank of China technology department, Li Wei, has urged commercial banks in the country to embrace blockchain technology.
Reuters reported that Wei said this during a forum in Shanghai, where he said commercial banks should “step up their application of blockchain technology.” His comments came after China’s president, Xi Jinping, said the country should “seize the opportunity” afforded by the technology.
Xi said blockchain should be taken as an “important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies.” The President noted China needed to “focus on a number of key core technologies” to accelerate its development.
President Xi’s remarks focused on blockchain technology and not decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
The comments to me affected Bitcoin’s price as the cryptocurrency started surging a few hours later. Dovey Wan, a Founding Partner of Primitive Ventures tweeted that this may be due to an overreaction from traders in the West.
Cryptocurrency exchanges have been banned in China since September of 2017 making President Xi’s remarks seem to be on “blockchain technology not bitcoin.