Lex Sokolin: China's Open Source Development Has Lessons for the US

Published on by Coindesk | Published on

We can look at India and its band of over 50 Chinese apps, including the super app WeChat, or we can analyze the Donald Trump treatment of TikTok, put up for a fire sale and justified with jingoistic rhetoric.

Why is there such extreme positioning over technology assets by both China and the U.S.? The simple answer is pain, and the economic havoc wrought by the coronovirus epidemic on the world.

I've written before how the shock of opening up to capitalism in the USSR led to a 45% GDP collapse over half a decade, resulting in life expectancy decreasing by 10 years for the average Russian due to alcoholism and violence.

China is holding up a bit better in the coronovirus environment, based on stronger national control over people, technology and narrative.

China has expanded control over Hong Kong, and made big investments into artificial intelligence and blockchain, which the West continues to view in a generally negative light.

The Chinese state may have a reason to scrub content outside of trying to spy on the U.S.: TikTok - Yes, TikTok - Is the Latest Window Into China's Police State; Expat Uyghurs are gaming the social platform known for fluff to find loopholes in Xinjiang's information lockdown.

TikTok is practically kicked out of the U.S., needing to hand over American operations to an American company, with Microsoft in the lead.:White House puts Chinese apps on notice as Trump gives TikTok '45 days' to reach Microsoft deal.

You might have noticed that ETH and BTC had both strongly appreciated over the last week.

Finance has seen somewhere between $200 million and $400 million in value flow through it over the last month after distributing a reward mechanism to its community.

I'd like to think there is a parallel world version of me, sitting in front of a screen on some late afternoon, agonizing over the human condition through the lens of fintech themes in another language.

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