In an odd turn of events, Alibaba, the Chinese eCommerce and tech giant founded by Jack Ma, hit the news today after establishing a Crypto-mining platform. The Alibaba Crypto-mining platform is going by the name of “P2P Nodes” and was registered on 10th October 2017, in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province.
The news comes as a shock owing to the Chinese government’s latest attempts to minimize Crypto-mining and eradicate the centralized crypto-to-fiat trading altogether. The government is implementing its plan by curbing electricity usage and limiting land use, tax, and environmental protection measures.
China’s largest cloud-based Crypto mining pool, ViaBTC, has recently closed operations, citing vague reasons like controlling speculation and protecting investor interests. Alibaba’s Crypto-mining move is quite on the contrary, and information suggests that its main operating platform is Alibaba East China Ltd, and the company intends to incorporate P2P Nodes in its eCommerce platform in the near future.
The launch of P2P Nodes is a move that also contradicts Jack Ma’s previous statements regarding Bitcoin and the concept of crypto-currency. “I said honestly, I know very little about it, and I’m totally confused,” to quote his own words about crypto-currency. “Even if it works, the whole international rules on trade and financing are going to be completely changed,” he had added. But he had voiced his trust in blockchain technology, saying, “We’ve spent a lot of efforts on blockchain technology and development.” If a report by another Chinese conglomerate, Tencent, is to be believed, they have also registered a ‘Blockchain-related trademark’ for an entity referred to variously as ‘Ether Lock’ and ‘Ethernet Lock.’
Amidst all the negativity surrounding Crypto-mining in China, this bold move by one of its largest companies come as a silver lining to all Crypto-currency users and producers in China.
