China’s government has made clear its distaste for the free-wheeling, anti-establishment cryptocurrency community. When it comes to crypto’s blockchain technology, however, it’s a different story.
President Xi Jinping has urged mass adoption of digital ledgers to help turn China into an industrial and digital powerhouse. The country is also embracing the latest blockchain craze – non-fungible tokens – albeit with conditions attached.
1. Didn’t China basically ban crypto?
More or less. Beijing’s paramount concern is maintaining social and economic stability, hence its dim view of speculative, volatile crypto trading and its association with gambling, money laundering, alleged scams and other problems.
In 2017, the central bank shut down exchanges that hosted trades between yuan and Bitcoin and banned individuals or businesses from raising money from crypto tokens. Renewed crackdowns in 2021 forced exchanges like Huobi to stop serving Chinese customers entirely.
Crypto miners fled the country when regulators decided they would no longer tolerate the high energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with their business.
2. So how is it possible for China to host NFTs?
An NFT proves ownership of a piece of digital art or collectible and is an effective store of value because it cannot be reproduced.
NFTs were first developed on the secure, decentralised blockchains associated with cryptocurrencies, but China has taken a different approach. It’s relying on so-called permission-based blockchains that operate under state oversight.
No crypto coins are involved, with all payments made in the official yuan currency, so there’s little opportunity for speculation.
The system only permits the initial acquisition of an NFT, with no secondary market akin to global exchange OpenSea, where speculators bid up prices of collectibles such as Bored Apes, CryptoSkulls and Lazy Lion graphics.
3. Who is leading the way?
Ant Group Co. and Tencent Holdings have pioneered so-called “alliance” blockchains controlled by groups of private companies under the authority of the government.
Ant has launched a “Treasure Project” for museums and galleries to issue their digital collectibles based on its blockchain technology. A total of 24 museums across China are set to join an Ant campaign to issue NFTs inspired by tiger-themed cultural relics for the Chinese Year of the Tiger.
In October, 10,000 digital pieces of the “Sword of Goujian,” a weapon named after an ancient Chinese king, sold out within minutes.
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