Japanese virtual currency to the turning point ?

For the Japanese government, to create a transparent and orderly digital currency market, we must not only let it go, but we must try to incorporate it into the normalized supervision. At present, what Japan is doing is this work.

Since December 2017, the digital currency represented by Bitcoin has been extremely weak, and this trend is still continuing. On June 23, 2018, the price of Bitcoin fell below the important psychological barrier of $6,000 for the first time in the year. This price has fallen by nearly 70% compared with the beginning of the year. Surprisingly, the trigger that triggered this round of sharp decline came from Japan, which was once widely regarded as a hotbed of digital currency.

Policy and market are constantly changing:

For a long time in the past, China, Japan, the United States, South Korea and other countries have dominated the digital currency trading landscape such as Bitcoin. Beginning on September 4, 2017, as China gradually stopped ICO (first currency issue) and the digital currency exchange suspended direct renminbi transactions, Japan surpassed China to become the country with the highest global digital currency trading volume.

However, from the recent measures taken by Japan, the prospect of digital currency in Japan seems to be not optimistic.

According to industry sources, this bitcoin fell below the psychological threshold of $6,000, and the most direct factor should be "guilty" in Japan. In mid-June, the Japan Financial Services Agency imposed administrative penalties on six digital currency exchanges, including bitFlyer and bitbank. According to the announcement, the need for improvement of these exchanges includes measures to ensure the normal and reliable operation of the business, establishment of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing risk management systems, and establishment of a management system for user information security management.

For this administrative penalty, the Japanese Finance Agency explained that it was not a refusal to apply for registration, but a business improvement order, which means that the management improvement of the exchange failed to keep pace with the development of virtual currency. However, in fact, not long ago, the Japanese Finance Agency rejected the application for a license for the digital currency exchange, and the FSHO exchange, which is based in Yokohama, was considered “unqualified”.

"Government supervision has always been one of the most important factors affecting the price of digital currencies. If even Japan has completely shut down the door, I really can't imagine whether Bitcoin will really fail." Investor Liu Peng said his own Worried.

Tniya, an analyst at Fxstreet, a financial and professional website, believes that Japanese regulators impose restrictions on digital currency operators, and that exchanges and companies have left Japan, which will inevitably put pressure on Bitcoin and other digital currencies. At present, the companies such as Firecoin Pro, Kraken, and BigONE have reported that they will suspend service for Japanese users.

Since the beginning of this year, Japan has continued to overweight the regulation of digital currency. Different countries and different trading platforms have different digital currency prices, and there are arbitrage opportunities, which are usually used by investors who are keen on “moving bricks”. The Japan Financial Services Agency has discussed this and plans to limit the leverage of digital currency trading.

The Japan Virtual Money Trading Association also plans to develop guidelines for anonymous trading, money laundering, insider trading, and deliberate manipulation of the market, requiring exchanges to remove and avoid listing "anonymous" digital currencies, and requiring exchanges to enhance the security of data management. The Nomura Research Institute of Japan has called for the scale of ICO to expand as digital currency transactions continue to increase, and Japan needs to establish appropriate regulatory mechanisms.

The Japanese police also stepped up their efforts to crack down on digital currency mining software, marking the mining application as a "virus." The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that police officers in 10 districts including Kanagawa Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture arrested 16 suspects who used the Internet to access user computers for unauthorized digital currency mining.

In addition to the policy level, the bearishness from the market has continued. Japanese digital currency wallet "HB Wallet" Android version was exposed to a $550,000 digital currency theft; Japanese retailer Shopin's digital currency wallet is also reportedly hacked, losing more than $10 million in digital currency such as Ethereum . Almost every time a large-scale theft occurs, it will trigger a strong reaction to the decline in the market.

Promote the transition from chaos to governance

Is Japan the door to shutting down the digital currency market?

"For the government, to create a transparent and orderly market environment, we must not only let it go, but we must work hard to incorporate it into the normalization of supervision. At present, what Japan is doing is this work." In many analysts It seems that the maturity of the stock market has undergone a transition from chaos to governance. As a new thing, digital currency has been controversial since its inception, and is even considered to be linked to money laundering, tax evasion, sitting, fraud, illegal financing, hacking and other illegal activities. But decentralized digital currencies are built with technical logic and are slowly showing value. As a major currency circulatory country, Japan is now trying to incorporate normalized regulation, protect the interests of investors, and protect the germination of technology.

The data shows that the current yen against bitcoin accounts for 75.22%, ranking first, far exceeding the second-ranked US dollar. According to industry analysts, as early as February 2018, the trading volume of the yen in the digital currency accounted for about 40% of the total global trading volume. This is mainly due to Japan’s friendly attitude towards the digital currency industry and relatively loose regulatory policies.

In fact, from the development of the Japanese digital currency market, we can see the trajectory of its policy.

On May 25, 2016, the Japanese parliament passed the amendment to the “Financial Algorithm”, recognizing that virtual currency is a legal means of payment and incorporating it into the legal regulation system, thus becoming the first country to provide legal protection for virtual currency exchanges. .

For ICO, Japan’s current finance minister, Aso, said that he does not advocate the supervision of ICO. In addition, for the recent theft of the Coincheck trading platform in Japan, Aso also stressed the need to focus on the balance between innovation and user protection, without denying the value of digital currency.

Industry analysts believe that the Japanese official's stated attitude indicates that Japan will adopt a more open attitude towards digital currency and its transactions and even ICO in the coming period.

Japanese companies have also been planning for the mining industry chain that is needed for some digital currencies. Japan's GMO has developed a 12-nm FFC semiconductor chip that can be used in next-generation digital currency miners. The company claims that this innovation is "a major step toward achieving 7 nanometer mining chip processing technology."

In order to solve the excessive power consumption caused by mining, Kumamoto Energy, a local energy producer and supplier in Kumamoto, Japan, said it will deploy a more environmentally friendly large-scale solar power plant to solve the problem of power consumption for bitcoin.

It is worth noting that Japan's traditional financial regulatory tools are gradually penetrating into digital currency regulation, which is a positive signal. For example, the Japan Cryptographic Association proposed a draft self-regulation, which mainly includes prohibiting transactions based on information obtained in advance from the management and employees of the exchange. It refers to the prohibition of insider trading in the stock market.

In addition, many institutions in Japan are taking measures to help more people understand and understand digital currency.

The Japan Digital Money Support Center has launched a digital currency investment training course for middle-aged and elderly people, aiming to eliminate the doubts of middle-aged and elderly people about digital currency and guide middle-aged and elderly people to invest in digital currency.

A cartoon team in Japan recently released the first comic book introducing digital currency. "Although there are already many articles on digital currency, these articles only have words, and the Japanese people generally do not read these articles." Its chief editor, Tyro, said that he hopes to introduce everyone to the digital currency and its potential.

In addition, a number of accounting firms in Japan are interested in providing tax support related to digital currency.

Inciting the domestic economy

Can digital currency be used in large-scale applications in Japan?

Namba is one of Japan's most profitable electronics, cosmetics and duty-free goods stores. The company said that although bitcoin payments have been paid in less than 1% since 2017, the number of Japanese bitcoin consumers is growing slowly and steadily.

The European Centre for Economic Research conducted a questionnaire survey of 300 experts from banks, insurance companies and the financial sector. Some respondents are convinced that by 2020, digital currency will be used to pay for coffee and other commodities, and a considerable percentage of them believe that it will be realized in Japan and the United States.

As the underlying technology of digital currency, the development of blockchain is also ushered in spring in Japan. More and more applications are testing the water, although there has not been a subversive change in anticipation, but as this progress, the "killer" application is not far away.

The business world is the center of reality for the application of blockchains in Japan. Fukuoka Bank of Japan is brewing a blockchain-related technology to build a regional point management system and build a platform centered on points services; Japanese housing giant Sekisui Residence Co., Ltd. announced that it will start a pilot blockchain program with the bitFlyer exchange, allowing The customer completes the real estate lease contract on the smartphone. The two companies said they hope to allow customers to completely abandon paper documents and conduct complex leasing transactions through blockchain-driven smartphone applications; Japanese mobile game developer Gumi has also established a $30 million global blockchain investment fund. , began to set foot in the blockchain field.

Sun Yat-sen, a well-known Japanese investor, is also involved in the competition for the opportunity to compete for blockchain opportunities. Recently, at the Japan Softbank Group Annual General Meeting held in Tokyo, Sun Zhengyi, chairman and president of Softbank, said: “The blockchain is a new technology that is just beginning to emerge, and we are actively using blockchain technology.”

In addition to companies, the Japanese government is also eager to try blockchain applications. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan will use the blockchain technology to issue university degree certificates online. Recently, the Chiba Prefecture Police of Japan and the Fujitsu Group held a seminar on the theme of virtual currency and blockchain technology. The police explained the crime cases involving virtual currency and the latest search technology. Fujitsu explained the security measures combined with blockchain technology. Both parties hope to use blockchain technology through knowledge sharing to achieve the purpose of suppressing crime.

Some analysts pointed out that in the context of many countries worried about the risk of digital currency, Japan still supports digital currency and blockchain technology, mainly to seize this new economic growth point. Kitao Yoshio, chief executive officer (CEO) of Japan's leading financial services company SBI, recently said at the first annual blockchain conference in Japan that the blockchain will bring the Japanese economy back on track and restore its former world status.

Some experts pointed out that in the era of mobile Internet, Japan's development is lagging behind the United States and China. Therefore, for the upcoming era of digital currency and blockchain, Japan does not want to be left again, but to catch up with this wave of tides, thereby driving the Japanese economy to pick up.