Despite all the limitations on cryptocurrency mining and trading from the government, reports suggest that Alibaba has launched a cryptocurrency mining platform
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and tech giant, recently launched a cryptocurrency mining platform called “P2P Nodes,” which was registered by Alibaba on October 10th in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province.
A rough translation of the original report reads: “Alibaba has recently launched a virtual currency mining platform ‘P2P node’, from the terms of the service agreement terms platform, the main operating platform is Alibaba East China Ltd. It is reported that the company on October 10, 2017, has been completed registration, registered in Nanjing.”
So far, not much is known about the operation, although Finance Magnates suggests it might be based on third-party mining. This might mean Alibaba will loan out space in its cloud platform for clients to mine cryptocurrency.
P2P Nodes also represents an apparent U-turn for Jack Ma, Alibaba founder, who in December declared that the world was “not ready” for engagement with cryptocurrency. Jack Ma expressed his distrust of digital coins on multiple public platforms and said:
In some parts of the world, news of a major corporation like Alibaba venturing into cryptocurrency mining runs contrary to the current regulatory narrative coming from Beijing. Authorities have recently made known a desire to slowly reduce participation in Bitcoin mining, while regulators are also moving to eradicate the last traces of centralized crypto-to-fiat trading and money laundering.
At the same time, Ma – whose net worth tops $46 billion – was quick to praise the advent of blockchain technology, suggesting his company had already looked into ways to harness this tool.
What exactly the new Alibaba cryptocurrency mining platform will do remains to be seen. Similarly, there is no sign just yet that the e-commerce company is planning to launch its own digital currency.
