Governments do not want to see competing currencies. They threaten their monopoly to create money and control the financial system and the economy. Actually, the reason China is the first big government to take such action isn’t an accident. China more than any other country wants to have firm control of its banking system, and allocate credit according to a political agenda. This means that a competing currency like the Bitcoin would threaten its political system. The People’s Bank of China halted operations for digital currency trading platforms over concerns that the unregulated markets could pose major financial risks. Without the backing of a central bank asset and institutional support, it is not clear how a private digital currency at the centre of a large-scale payment system would behave, or whether the payment system would be able to function.