National Development and Reform Commission: Comprehensively rectify industrial-style centralized "mining" and other behaviors

China News Service, November 16th. The National Development and Reform Commission held a November press conference on the 16th. Meng Wei, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the comprehensive rectification will focus on industrial centralized "mining", "mining" involving state-owned units and Bitcoin "mining".

A reporter asked, what are the considerations of the National Development and Reform Commission on the deployment of virtual currency "mining" governance? What specific measures will be taken next?

Meng Wei said that first of all, it should be made clear that virtual currency is a specific virtual commodity that is not issued by the monetary authorities, is not legal and compulsory, is not a real currency, and should not and cannot be circulated and used as currency in the market. In September this year, the People's Bank of China, together with relevant departments, issued the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation", which clearly stated that virtual currency does not have the same legal status as legal tender, and its related business activities are illegal financial activities. There are legal risks in participating in virtual currency investment and trading activities.

Meng Wei said that since virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities, the virtual currency "mining" behavior involved in your question is extremely harmful. Virtual currency "mining" consumes a lot of energy and emits a lot of carbon, and does not have a positive driving effect on industrial development and scientific and technological progress. In addition, the risks derived from the production and trading of virtual currencies are becoming more and more prominent. Its blind and disorderly development has a serious adverse impact on promoting high-quality economic and social development and energy conservation and emission reduction. Rectifying virtual currency "mining" activities is of great significance to promoting the optimization of my country's industrial structure, promoting energy conservation and emission reduction, and achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals as scheduled.

Meng Wei mentioned that in order to resolutely implement the relevant deployment requirements for the rectification of virtual currency "mining", the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant departments, jointly issued the "Notice on the Rectification of Virtual Currency "Mining" Activities", which clearly added virtual currency "mining" activities to the "Guidelines for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2019 Edition)" "Eliminated Category" catalog, and required effective measures to be taken to comprehensively rectify virtual currency "mining" activities.

Meng Wei mentioned that on November 10, the National Development and Reform Commission organized a special video conference on the governance of virtual currency "mining", reported on the monitoring and rectification of virtual currency "mining", deployed the next stage of work, and required all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to truly assume local responsibilities, establish systems, and carry out monitoring, clean up and rectify virtual currency "mining" activities in their regions, and strictly investigate and punish "mining" activities involving computer rooms of state-owned units.

Meng Wei said that in the next step, we will focus on comprehensive rectification of industrial centralized "mining", "mining" involving state-owned units and Bitcoin "mining". For units that implement residential electricity prices, if they are found to be involved in virtual currency "mining" activities, we will study the possibility of levying punitive electricity prices on them, forming a high-pressure situation for continuous rectification of virtual currency "mining" activities. (China News Service APP)