Bitcoin's future hinges on mining powerhouse China

Hong Kong

WU Jihan still remembers the exhilaration he felt after learning about bitcoin in 2011.

A self-described computer geek fresh out of China's top university, Mr Wu soaked up everything he could about the digital currency's mysterious founder and its users' ambitions to transform the global financial system. Within a year, he quit his job at a private equity firm to launch a bitcoin startup. Today, his company is one of the world's biggest players in bitcoin mining, a computing process that makes transactions with the cryptocurrency possible.