Huawei Technologies Co., the world’s third-largest smartphone brand, will begin offering their users the ability to download Bitcoin wallets on their devices this Friday.
This unprecedented move is in collaboration with BTC.com, which also controls the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool. According to Alejandro de la Torre, BTC.com’s vice president of business operations, Huawei will be incorporating BTC.com’s Bitcoin wallet in its App Gallery.
According to Bloomberg, Huawei is targeting the massive Chinese market, where the Shenzhen-based company is the biggest cell-phone manufacturer. The nation – with all of its 1.379 billion people – has always showed massive interest in cryptocurrencies, despite the government crackdown in September 2017. It has been reported that China has one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mines, and while BTC.com used to have its Bitcoin mines situated in China, the power restrictions enforced by the government forced it to move its operations offshore.
Therefore, with the Chinese government Android’s Google Play Store and some sections of Apple’s iTunes, Huawei’s App Gallery will face minimal competition as it rolls out the BTC.com Bitcoin wallet. For the record, although the Chinese government might have shut down all cryptocurrency trading platforms and initial coin offerings (ICOs), it is still legal for Chinese nationals to own digital currencies.
In a telephone interview, de la Torre also agrees that the introduction of BTC.com’s wallet will gain massive traction in China.
“It’s a good opportunity to tap into the Chinese market. The use of cashless payments with apps is very big and the traditional banking system is lacking, so there’s a good use case for crypto payments to grow there.”
Concerns of Government Crackdown
Although the notion of a Bitcoin wallet app sounds promising, it is still unsure how the Chinese government will react to this news. After all, the Xi-Li Administration has had a notorious history when it comes to cryptocurrency-related operations.
In the beginning of 2018, the Chinese government announced that it will be targeting websites and mobile apps that offer cryptocurrency trading services, triggering a major sell-off that led to the great meltdown of the crypto market this year. Back in September 2017, China issued a nation-wide clampdown on cryptocurrency exchanges, forcing the majority of traders to transfer their funds over to offshore platforms in order to keep trading.
As of right now, the Chinese government has yet to respond to Huawei’s announcement.