The title of the forum was arcane even by cryptocurrency standards: Web 3.0 Blockchain Application Cum Computing Power Overseas and Distributed Storage Conference.
But attendees of the event in Chengdu, China, were clear about why they turned up in the middle of a government crackdown on Bitcoin mining. They’re looking for ways to stay in cryptocurrency, even if it means testing their luck in lesser-known parts of the ecosystem that may or may not incur the wrath of Beijing.
While plenty of miners have fled China, these cryptocurrency diehards are betting they can continue to thrive under Communist Party oversight by shifting into lesser-known tokens and decentralized storage technologies with names like Filecoin, Swarm, Silicoin and Chia. It’s a high-risk wager at a time when Xi Jinping’s government is ramping up scrutiny of energy-intensive industries and anything that could pose a risk to financial stability.