The comparison to prohibition is brilliant, I hadn't thought about it that way before. If people were willing to rebel and turn to organized crime in such an extreme way for BEER, imagine what they'll do for their money!
The counterpoint being, that death penalty is a potentially huge deterrent. But, when people are desperate to earn a living, even that is unlikely to keep them away...
It seems to me that the real question is how long it takes, if ever, before China realizes its mistake - as all the economic activity surrounding cryptocurrency moves to Japan, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Will they give up on this crackdown in a few years, or stay in the technological past?
I would not be surprised to see them reverse course on this within the next few years, probably after they have figured out how to effectively regulate the markets the way they would like. Either that or it will be when they have their own nationalized blockchain and currency that they can "control".