The 21-Day Bitcoin Challenge: Can you Survive on Nothing but Cryptocurrencies in China?
The battle for survival in the virtual world seems to have become a hot topic in China. Twenty-one days of challenging and hard-working people use the money. It seems that everything is not only struggling around the rice money but also in the struggle from the government.
We all have seen these shows where a person needs to survive a certain period of time with a limited amount of money in different locations. The Chinese TV decided to take it even further and add a new twist to the story.
A Chinese Bitcoin enthusiast is currently filming her attempt to survive 21 days by living on nothing but bitcoin. A recent documentary shows her trying to retrieve food, housing, and necessities all through cryptocurrency transactions done on her phone. The cryptographic adventure is airing on iQiyi, China’s Netflix equivalent, TechCrunch reported on September 17.
Social Experiment Amidst a Government Crackdown
He You Bing is traveling and carrying nothing with her, and she has to retrieve food, housing, and basic necessities all through bitcoin transactions done on her phone. Interestingly, she is also doing this challenge in some of China’s largest cities including Beijing and Shenzhen.
Her name is something of a nom de guerre — a nickname, with “You Bing” directly translating to “having a disease,” and the whole name alludes to the girl’s over-enthusiasm for bitcoin.
It’s a fascinating time for making this attempt. In the last few weeks, there have been numerous reports of China’s crypto bans — including Beijing and Shenzhen banning public cryptocurrency-related speeches, events, or activities, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Also included in the purported ban were a number of WeChat media accounts that promoted cryptocurrencies, which have been permanently blocked. Furthermore, Beijing blocked access to the websites of over 120 offshore exchanges in the mainland and banned large crypto purchases through popular Chinese payments platforms Alipay and WeChat transactions.
Given the sheer number of these bans, readers who live outside of China may be led to think that there is a bleak outlook for the cryptocurrency environment on mainland China. But He You Bing’s Bitcoin challenge reveals a refreshing perspective on the crypto awareness of people living in these local cities as well as the power of WeChat. $1,300 may not sound like much for 21 days of travel in the U.S., but in China, where a cheap meal costs just $1, it can go a long way.
The real question is, will people accept bitcoin?
Can You Thrive on Bitcoin Alone?
Bing’s daily vlog shows her running around asking different business vendors whether they accept bitcoin. According to TechCrunch, Bing immediately encountered roadblocks as people were either ignorant or distrustful of cryptocurrencies.
The first few days of the challenge saw Bing sleeping in a 24-hour McDonald’s, foraging for food and ultimately landing in a hospital due to exhaustion.
However, increased media coverage helped Bing gather more supporters, who offered to exchange bitcoin with her. While some helped her find restaurants that accepted crypto payments, others were willing to book a hotel for her via cryptocurrencies.
Gradually, Bing’s bitcoin challenge managed to start a small movement on WeChat, showing that bitcoin is alive and well in China within digital communities, albeit not prevalent in the physical world.
While her story is still not over, the documentary has earned serious media attention in China, and companies and institutions have asked to donate and sponsor the filmmakers.
Despite the media coverage and the fact that Bitcoin now makes up more than 56 percent of the total cryptocurrency market cap, Bing still gets people suspecting that she is trying to scam them.
The overwhelmingly negative sentiment felt towards cryptocurrencies in China comes from an incredibly high number of scam coins that have popped up in the past few years. One of the purposes of Beijing’s ban on commercial venues hosting cryptocurrency events was aimed at purging coins from scamming the public.
After all, i realize it is not a currency, it’s a community!
Anyway, back to the story this girl by the end of the 3rd day the challenge had to be stopped, and He You Bing had to be taken to the hospital due to starvation symptoms — the girl was on the verge of losing consciousness.
However, she reached ones of her goal — the challenge attracted attention of the public, thus, raising cryptocurrency awareness in China. Hopefully, next time the girl will choose less radical methods to do so!
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