James Li, co-founder of www.btc360.com, is busy in preparing his China based Bitcoin exchange beta test recently. "We will have promote campaign, and also market on Weibo(China version of twitter) and forum to get exposure."

Btc360 is not the early entrants to the China market. Before it, there're about 10 exchanges out there, most of which are attracted to the community by the rise of Bitcoin price this year. There were 3-4 new Bitcoin exchanges went online every month in the past few months in China. More are coming.

"I think the China market is big enough for more exchanges" James said. "Many Chinese users are speculators, they don't use Bitcoin in any other occasion. There are few sites in China offering different service other than exchange. We see this as our opportunity." "Exchange is our first step, we will have something different in the near future." he added.

China has some advantages in Bitcoin exchange, one of them is its irreversible online payment system. (Actually, not only online, but also in the whole financial system, money transfer or even credit card payment is not irreversible. In words, no charge back in China.) Alipay, the most popular online payment processor in China, has no charge back process. So does its follower, Tenpay. "They (Alipay and Tenpay) are perfect for Bitcoin exchange, which is irreversible as well" said by James, "China's sites are offering the fastest Bitcoin and fiat exchange service in the world. In the process, you can deposit or withdrawal money using Alipay or Tenpay in seconds. This fast speed becomes standard in China. In some countries, it may takes 2-3 days due to the lack of irreversible online payment method."

However, security issues arise among China's exchanges. 2 months ago, an exchange leaked some users' accounts information. This caused users' loss of Bitcoin not only in the site but also in other sites since the users used same register information among them. Some development teams lack basic online security knowledge. They even send password (which is set by user) to users in email. James said, "In term of security, only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked." Early this month, some China's exchanges, including the leading ones, experienced DDoS attack and service had been seriously affected for more than 2 weeks. The involved exchanges blamed the other for the attack.

China exchanges run as unregistered site usually, considering administrator's ambiguous attitude toward Bitcoin. But this begins to change recently. More and more Bitcoin sites register as normal company, which means they are included into some regulations by the government, even though they are still not recognized as any financial related organization.

"Our government would watch what other countries do on Bitcoin, especially the attitude of US. But we have to act smartly and cautiously in China market. You'd better not to make any trouble here." James explained.

But a recent fall down of a HKD/BTC exchange may be involved in the first China bitcoin scam. Victims already reported to police. Lose could reach to 1.6 millions USD.

Until now China's government has no public comment on Bitcoin, except 4 months ago in a regular press conference, a spokesman from Security Regulatory Commission mentioned that they would keep eyes on Bitcoin. National TV sometimes reported Bitcoin news. It ever had a 30 minutes documentary on Bitcoin this year. These give some confidence to the Chinese Bitcoin enthusiasts.

by FTS-Fuck the System

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