It has been reported that China has started a quarantine of its used bank notes to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the crypto community began to pick up on the news commenting that the use of Bitcoin as a means of payment should fix the issue.
More confirmed cases of the epidemic outbreak
Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, recorded a dramatic spike of almost 15,000 new cases and 242 new deaths in just 24 hours after provincial authorities changed their method for diagnosing cases on Feb 13. Dovey Wan, founding partner of Primitive Crypto claimed on twitter earlier today that the government is underreporting the numbers.
BBC’s recent report informed of 2,009 new cases and 142 more deaths. According to the official figures, the total number of infected in the nation is above 68,000, and the death toll is at 1,665.
Effects on the crypto market
Chinese crypto mining facilities allegedly being shut appears to have had little to no impact on Bitcoin (BTC) network hash rate. The network appears to be performing stronger than ever with hash rates continuing to rise.
Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics, told Cointelegraph that it is hard to estimate the impact on the market right now, “How it will affect Bitcoin’s price, I really couldn’t tell you. At the moment, I don’t feel like it is.” Meanwhile a spokesperson for mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain said that they are seeing no impact at all.
Birth of CoronaCoin
While the crypto community is speculating on twitter whether Bitcoin could have been the answer to the spread of the virus through banknotes, a Coronavirus based ERC-20 corona-coin (NCOV) has been launched according to a Reddit post. According to the website, its aim is to spread awareness about the outbreak.