China blocks access to Ethereum block explorer Etherscan

According to CoinDesk, China’s internet firewall blocked access to Etherscan, a favored Ethereum block explorer, for IP addresses originating within the country. The change went relatively undetected at first, although evidence suggests the event occurred sometime in Sept. 2019. While the reason behind the ban remains unclear, some reports note users previously used the Ethereum blockchain to share particular articles censored by China’s government, which one can read using block explorers like Etherscan. At this point, other block explorers remain accessible “from inside mainland China.”

Why it matters:

• Despite China’s push for greater adoption of blockchain technology, blocking access to Etherscan is a clear sign the country is not as optimistic about cryptocurrency and its associated qualities, in particular, censorship resistance. China’s government is predicated on censoring information, and a censorship-resistant communication and transaction platform is antithetical to its strategy. China could also be looking to direct attention away from other networks as the country intends to launch a digital currency, the CBDC, sometime next year.
• The effort to firewall block explorers is a futile one, however, as any user can access a chain’s information by spinning up a node. Any further push to ban block explorers by the Chinese government may lead users to run their own node, which would provide an overall benefit to most networks, including Ethereum. The counterargument is Ethereum’s state growth problem is making self-hosting an increasingly difficult practice, an issue that could lead users to migrate to competing networks.