During the last couple of years, bitcoin has been a grey area in China, due to numerous government regulations and the current state-focused financial system of the country.
However, recent reports indicate that the Asian country will soon have a set of laws that can be applied to both bitcoin and other digital currencies in China’s market. The set of laws are meant to offer rights to own, sell and store virtual property, and is a part of the new draft for the People’s Republic of China General Principles of Civil Law.
The new draft law was created following the recent Conference held by the NPC Standing Committee. It’s designed in such a way to not be a burden for the evolution of the digital currency, as it considers virtual networks, information and data as property, just like financial and physical assets are. In return, thus brings them under the reach of the Civil rights laws which apply to most types of property.
If the decision to implement this law is taken, then the country and its legal system will immediately consider bitcoin and other digital currencies as private property. This is a step forward for the cryptocurrency, as it’ll make its owners eligible for actual legal protection against theft and fraud. So far, as digital currencies did not have a legal status in the country, they were abused of by criminals, businessmen and other people to create money-stealing, pyramid schemes.
The amendments made to the Article 111 deal with the rights that people have when it comes to moving properties such as bitcoin, whereas the Article 108 stands for intellectual property rights.
More than 10 years ago, in 2004, the Chinese constitution was amended to introduce a couple of civil laws, meant to govern the rights that people have to personal property. At that time, things such as books, livestock, housing, income, and more were deemed as property. However, virtual data was not mentioned, thus avoiding the possibility for the state to grant people protection against fraud and theft of digital data assets.
It’s worth pointing out that while China is truly far from treating bitcoin like a digital currency, and protecting it as required, this amendment to the Constitution will likely improve the state of bitcoin in the region, while also encouraging more people to make investments in the near future.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about China’s new laws for digital assets such as Bitcoin? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.