One Bitcoin can be exchanged for a house in Beijing? Many young Chinese are waiting for this day

Tiger Sniff Note: In the nine years since the birth of Bitcoin, its development has been under the strict supervision of governments of various countries. However, driven by huge profits, the number of people investing in this industry has continued to increase. At present, the total value of Bitcoin in circulation worldwide has exceeded 14 billion US dollars, and the transaction volume in the Chinese market accounts for more than 90% of it. Such a "achievement" is due to the huge investment of the Chinese people born in the 1980s and 1990s. Many holders of Bitcoin are eager to achieve financial freedom through this industry. While Japan announced the legalization of Bitcoin and Russia is also pursuing this result, many young Chinese are anxiously waiting for the next move of their government. Recently, three young Chinese people and an American working in Beijing were interviewed by the British "Guardian" and expressed their hopes, dependence and anxiety about the Bitcoin industry.

The following content was originally published in The Guardian and translated by Huxiu (with some refinement and deletions).

On a bright afternoon in April, in a blurry high-rise apartment building in Xicheng District, Beijing, 27-year-old Yang Huai (transliteration) sat there, quietly digging for his own fortune.

His residence is located on the 8th floor, which is considered auspicious by the Chinese.

Half a year ago, Yang Huai was a "jack of all trades", shuttling between a well-known consulting firm and a startup while testing the waters of hedge fund management. Now, he is single-minded. For the past six months, he has mostly stayed at home, curled up on the gray mini sofa, immersed in the collection and trading of Bitcoin. In his opinion, although the financial work he had previously done was "quite creative", the Bitcoin industry is "younger, more interesting, and more profitable."

According to him, it is not a problem for him to earn one million yuan a month. However, he still wants to "live a more exciting life".

Therefore, he bought a bunch of expensive equipment and filled the room with them. The most eye-catching one is the high-definition smart display screen that is more than one meter wide. With it, the ups and downs of Bitcoin and the changes in wealth caused by it can be seen clearly.

Frankly speaking, it is not a foolish dream to make a lot of money in this industry, but participants also have to bear high risks. Bitcoin is born as a P2P currency, which is not subject to intervention by governments and central banks. But in China, the situation is different.

In February this year, the government issued regulations requiring all Bitcoin trading platforms not to engage in illegal financial businesses such as financing and currency lending, not to participate in money laundering activities, and not to violate national financial laws and regulations on anti-money laundering, foreign exchange management, and payment settlement. After this requirement was issued, the two largest Bitcoin trading platforms in China, Huobi and OKCoin, announced the suspension of currency withdrawal services for a period of one month.

Yang Huai thinks that such things are "troublesome, but not a big problem", but it did make Chen Xing (transliteration, surname omitted at the request of the interviewee) stop working and think about it for a while. Chen Xing, 35 years old, is still childish and looks timid and sensitive. He used to be a geographic information engineer, but eventually gave up this "too comfortable" job. Now, he has been engaged in Bitcoin trading for four months. He obviously doesn't understand the government's strong control over related platforms.

But for him, the fragility of the Bitcoin system itself is the most worrying. "Technology is updated every day, and a hacker may appear tomorrow and destroy the entire system with a few tinkering. The so-called security actually depends on 'calculation'. Once this layer is broken, Bitcoin is finished." For this reason, although Chenxing calls himself a "believer" in Bitcoin, he does not intend to treat this industry as a long-term business - although he does not deny that the income is not what it used to be.

"It's always unstable," he said in an interview.

Because of this, every time he bought a few bitcoins, he would exchange them for cash as soon as possible, because he felt that this would make him feel more secure. This mentality is considered an outlier in the Chinese bitcoin trading circle.

Brendan Gibson, 32, is an American who has worked in China for 6 years and has been playing with Bitcoin for 3 years. As soon as he sat down for the interview, he picked up my phone and downloaded an app called BTC Wallet for me. Then, he transferred me a seed fund - 0.0027 Bitcoin. According to him, this 0.0027 is the average Bitcoin holding of 7.8 billion people in the world (calculated based on a total of 21 million Bitcoins).

Yes, Gibson believes that everyone should use Bitcoin — even “grandparents.”

For Gibson, Bitcoin is a way of life, and he hopes to achieve complete financial freedom through it. In the United States, he worked in the so-called "gray" mortgage industry, and this background made him, like Morningside, prone to worry and suspicion. However, what he is most worried about is not the fragility of the Bitcoin system itself, but private banks.

“I don’t think the economy should be built on a bunch of empty numbers. But now everyone is counting on the 12345 in their bank account… Bitcoin is different. Its nature determines that the holder is his own bank. This makes people feel more at ease.”

One thing that must be mentioned is that a fatal weakness of the Bitcoin system is that once the holder loses the secret key of the wallet, the Bitcoin inside can never be found again. It is said that two years ago, 30% of the Bitcoin (total value of about 5.4 billion yuan) was wasted. This pain point undoubtedly allows many people to glimpse the way to make money.

Sun Zeyu at work. Photo from The Guardian

Sun Zeyu, 27, is one of them. He works for a technology company in Beijing and has recently developed a project called Coldlar, which provides bitcoin holders with an offline physical wallet that can be opened by scanning a QR code. Sun Zeyu said that bitcoin security is indeed "difficult to guarantee," so he and his colleagues designed the project so that users can bypass major platforms and control their own wealth more safely. "Now that the price (of bitcoin) has risen, everyone has realized the importance of security," he explained.

When Sun Zeyu was still in college, he learned about Bitcoin through a seminar held by Huobi.com. Like his friend Yang Huai mentioned at the beginning of the article, Sun Zeyu yearns for money, lots of money. He is reluctant to tell me how much he earns each month, but he can guarantee that compared with the monthly income of 80,000 yuan when he first entered the industry three years ago, his current monthly income has increased "many times".

Part of this income comes directly from Bitcoin transactions, and part comes from the profits brought by Sun Zeyu's company projects. Coldlar's good momentum makes Sun believe that within ten years, the value of Bitcoin will reach the height of "one coin = one house in Beijing". In this process, small shocks like "suspending the withdrawal business" will be "as frequent as breathing", but because of the drive of interests, everything can pass.

He firmly believes this.

Except for Sun Zeyu, the daily "work" of the other three interviewees is somewhat isolated, but this does not prevent them from calling friends. For example, Gibson, in addition to exchanging information with hundreds of Bitcoin fans in China, has attracted nearly 1,000 people to this emerging industry (of course, I don't know how many of them are like me, who have been sleeping after the 0.0027 "principal" was credited). This is probably the best proof of his belief in the industry. As for Chenxing, he simply said: The activeness of the Bitcoin community in Beijing is a major reason for him to stay in this city and this industry.

"I do meet some 'true fans' of Bitcoin... I think people who like Bitcoin are freedom-loving people," he said.

As for Yang Huai, he can hardly tolerate any doubts about Bitcoin, so he said something more forceful: "Yes, Bitcoin is risky. But why should I talk to people (those who are uneasy) about this? I make my money, that's all... If you don't plan to buy, I won't waste time talking to you." In addition, he also admitted that for those of them who entered the game first, it is not necessarily a bad thing that there are fewer people who know the business. If this status quo can be maintained, he is still very happy.

But this is unlikely. Although the price of Bitcoin has reached a high point, this does not mean that the industry will be like this in the future - how can we know how the external environment will change, and how can we know that the practitioners themselves will not restrict or even reduce this industry?

Currently, Bitcoin has been recognized as a legal currency in Japan. Will China also be able to wait for this day? Many people think it is unlikely. However, most of them intend to take root in this industry because they believe that no matter whether it is government intervention or anything else, it will eventually pass. It seems that only Chenxing is still uneasy. His final conclusion about Bitcoin is: "I will never feel safe."

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