Joseph Lubin: We want Ethereum to interact with China’s state cryptocurrency

Ethereum co-founder and CEO of Consensys Joseph Lubin hopes that China's state-owned cryptocurrency will be compatible with open blockchains, including Ethereum.

Lubin expressed his opinion during an interview with Forbes, published on November 9. 

"I assume it is going to be exactly what Chinese leadership thinks is most beneficial to Chinese leadership. Hopefully that's also open and we can interoperate with it, but I don't know," 

he explained.

Lubin added that he would like to see China's greater participation in the Ethereum ecosystem. He cited the Belt and Road blockchain-based commercial platform as an example, noting that it uses one of the "weaker technologies" compared to open blockchains like Ethereum.  

"I would love to help China get expert in Ethereum technology. [...] The main idea is that Ethereum is the strongest of the blockchain technologies and it's a very positive virus to implant in people's minds," 

he said.

Lubin believes that China will continue to undermine the status of the US dollar as a global reserve currency. According to him, the state cryptocurrency of China will have only a minor impact in this regard. He noted that Russia and China are making efforts to conduct business without the use of the US dollar.  

"There are lots of reasons why American influence is shrinking and will probably continue to shrink. That may not be a bad thing but in some ways, it'll be a bad thing. China's particular cryptocurrency I don't think is a major factor," 

he concluded.

 Lubin mentioned China's willingness to prevent access to digital currencies competing with its own, including ETH. He explained that the government's ability to prevent access to Ethereum in China depends on progress in deeply filtering traffic and on how motivated the state is in this area.

He admitted that the Chinese government "can do this if it wants to." However, new technologies may provide a way to circumvent censorship. When asked whether the deployment of China's state cryptocurrency could undermine the benefits of the blockchain or maliciously use technology transparency to monitor and control the transactions of every citizen.

"China is a business that writes its own rules and has an enormous customer base — 1.4 billion people. That's a tough economic force to compete with. I do think there's an instability. I think leaders are constantly terrified of revolution, so they have to keep the people relatively happy at some baseline level," 

Lubin said.

  Lubin has previously stated that China will try to avoid the decentralized aspects of the blockchain when developing the digital Yuan.

SOURCE