China, the largest county by population, is undoubtedly a large market for almost anything. However, the county's strong authoritarian tendencies still surface every once in a while. Sometimes it is for rather benign yet absurd reasons. Noted Crypto author Andreas Antonopoulos' cryptocurrency guides ‘Mastering Bitcoin’, has been translated into many languages. So it was not a shock that it was translated into Mandarin and the Chinese state television showcased his book; though with a completely new title.

cnLedger, an online cryptocurrency news resource reported, that the Chinese state television had showcased an edition of Mastering Bitcoin. It highlighted a snapshot of the presenter holding a copy of the book with the title printed in Chinese. When translated there is no mention of the word ‘Bitcoin’ at all, and instead reads: ‘Blockchain: The Path Towards Digitized Assets.

The incident received both scorn and ridicule as well as positive encouragement on social media. Some were outraged by the government's unneeded interference. This might not be completely baseless, as the authorities in Beijing had stepped up control over cryptocurrency trading and promotion before outright banning it in August. Having said that, reports suggest that the actual content within the book has not been altered significantly.

The writer, himself was hardly discouraged by the censorship and in fact, took to his Twitter account to suggest that the publicity in and of itself represented a vote of confidence.

How cool is this: "Mastering Bitcoin 1Ed", on Chinese national TV. Even with a slightly sanitized title (no mention of Bitcoin), the content is the same.

Hoping to visiting China next year. Maybe this brings more opportunities and conference invitations. https://t.co/SHOBoaiF9a

— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) October 25, 2018

Andreas, a celebrated speaker and educator in the realm of crypto assets and blockchain, is also well known for publicly calling out authorities’ attempts to subdue cryptocurrency, He hopes that such exposure will “Maybe brings more opportunities and conference invitations,” and noted that he is “hoping to visiting China next year.”

While his reactions do make sense owing to the fact that the core content has not been altered. The fact that Andreas is an active and firebrand Bitcoin advocate for many years, a reason that has garnered him a loyal fan base, which has surprised a few. However, they have been taken aback by his reactions before.

A few months ago, he was discussing his latest project, ‘Mastering Ethereum’. This confounded him as it was expected that he was in favor of Bitcoin. When asked about his in a question and answer session he shot back.

“That doesn’t mean that (Ethereum and other virtual machine, smart contract-based blockchains’) technology is useful or useless… does it mean that this technology is interesting? Absolutely,”.

As Mastering Ethereum enters its final phase, it will be interesting to note if any changes will be made to it when translating.

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