The most promising aspects of digital assets—transactional speed and freedom, financial inclusion, and most of all anonymity—are antithetical to Chinese Communist values. And yet, in many respects, China has taken the lead on investing in this burgeoning technology.

Mural "tankman" in memory of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989. Vogelsanger Straße 283, 50825 Köln-Ehrenfeld (via Wiki Commons).