Bitcoin's value proposition bolstered as China sees sudden bank run

According to a number of industry commentators, the cryptocurrency's value proposition was just bolstered with news that a Chinese bank has been subject to what all bankers fear: a bank run.

Think back to those articles you've read with photos of bank queues of men in trench coats and top hats snaking around street corners.

Bank runs remain a real and global threat to the fractional reserve banking system-meaning banks have less physical banknotes on hand than the amount of money that their clients deposits-that the world employs today.

On Oct. 31, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Henan Yichuan Rural Commercial Bank-a rural bank servicing customers in the area around the Chinese city of Luoyang-is in the midst of a bank run.

The depositors feared that the bank was on the brink of insolvency after rumors circulated that the bank's chairman was in hot water.

This fear came in spite of the cries of the bank managers, who waved wads of cash in the air, assured that accounts were insured in a bid to calm clients, and asserted that their employer is backed by the Chinese state.

According to Zerohedge, this is the fourth case of a flailing Chinese bank of notable size in the past few months.

As Marty Bent, a prominent Bitcoin maximalist podcaster, quipped in a recent tweet, "Bitcoin: providing better savings technology than banks since 2009.".

As long as all users keep their own Bitcoin in their own wallets, there can't be a "Bitcoin bank run," or government intervention to save "Bitcoin banks" for that matter.

While there are no signs that Bitcoin is being used to store value because of this Chinese banking debacle-cryptocurrency trading is vehemently banned in China, after all-there are cases of recent 21st-century bank runs resulting in Bitcoin adoption.