BTCC’s Bobby Lee: Why Chinese Bitcoin Miners Are Not Happy With SegWit

CEO of BTCC Bobby Lee says Bitcoin will drive the growth of other digital currencies, explained why Chinese miners refuse to adopt Segwit.
CEO of BTCC Bobby Lee says Bitcoin will drive the growth of other digital currencies, explained why Chinese miners refuse to adopt Segwit.

While some altcoins have been hyped for having the potential to turn the cryptocurrency market around in the coming years, CEO of BTCC Bobby Lee says Bitcoin will drive the growth of other digital currencies.

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Saturday, Feb. 18, he stated:

“My opinion is that the industry worldwide should first focus on Bitcoin.”

Lee is certain that the attention of the crypto world should be on Bitcoin. “Yes, altcoins may have some exciting features, but it’s hard enough to get Bitcoin adopted. In my opinion, Bitcoin will lead digital currencies in revolutionizing finance. We need to work hard to get Bitcoin accepted in mainstream society first!”

What is good for China

Going by the series of spot checks on the operations of Bitcoin exchanges in China by the PBoC, the BTCC CEO says he doesn’t know exactly what the bank really wants but guessed it would be “what’s good for China” with an assurance that his exchange, being pro-regulation not just in China but worldwide, will continue to work with the PBoC by supporting their requests and recommendations.

However, compared to 2013/2014, he thinks the PBoC is spending more effort on its latest moves and believes the bank “will have a strong say in how the Bitcoin exchange industry evolves in coming years.”

SegWit

He also touched on miners’ refusal to adopt SegWit saying it has nothing to do with whether or not they are Chinese. He said that the lack of opportunities among the community generally for collaboration and discussion to work out the differences is a major reason precluding Chinese miners from embracing SegWit.

Making SegWit activation happen has been a thorny and complicated issue more so considering accusations from both sides.

“It is hard to educate people about complicated topics and it takes an exponentially larger amount of time when more people are involved. Bitcoin is already complicated. SegWit and the scaling debate are even harder and more complicated. We need more time for better communication and understanding,” Lee‏ says, reiterating his previous sentiment that he expects to see SegWit activated first, followed by a real hardfork for a block size increase rolled out afterward, hopefully in 2017.

Privacy-focused altcoins

Responding to a question on whether privacy-focused altcoins will be available on Chinese exchanges, he added that he has not heard many requests for “privacy-focused” altcoins from the Chinese community and Bitcoin seems to strike the right balance between transparency and privacy with its pseudo-anonymous features.

He was also asked about bringing confidential transactions to Bitcoin, however, that means publicly traded companies can keep their financial activities private. Bobby Lee’s answer was that this “is not the highest priority for Bitcoin right now.”

Lee argued that the situation, where many miners and ASIC makers are located in China, does not mean that Bitcoin mining is exclusive only to the Chinese. He said that the fact that most dog and cat owners may be female doesn’t mean that only women are allowed to have them.