The Year Of The Crypto: AntGroup Chinese New Year NFTs, Hangzhou To Promote Digital Yuan Ahead Of 2022 Olympics, JD Launching Digital Yuan Hardware Wallet Support
To kick off the traditional Chinese New Year, Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group and owner of China’s largest digital payment platform Alipay, will be promoting a large number of digital collectibles that have quite a lot in common with non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
By Andrew Senior
January 25th, 2022
AntChain, Ant Group’s blockchain and tech arm, launched an NFT-powered campaign ahead of the start of the Chinese New Year on the first of February. Working hand-in-hand with 24 different museums located throughout China, AntChain created digital versions of famous Chinese animal antiques, representing the twelve creatures of the Chinese zodiac. Users will be able to buy these digital artifacts through the mini-program Topnod on Alipay, Ant’s popular payment app. Differing from other NFT platforms, most Chinese platforms don’t allow buyers to resell or trade their purchases due to government regulations aimed at minimizing speculation.
China’s state-backed Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN) also announced the launch of an NFT infrastructure platform in the country on Tuesday. The BSN-Distributed Digital Certificate (BSN-DDC) is an infrastructure platform which will allow individuals and companies to build portals and manage NFTs that are compliant with Chinese regulations, which prohibit trading, mining, and speculation of crypto assets.
Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province will also be expanding the use of digital yuan during the upcoming Asian Games. In a recently released five-year plan, the Chinese government highlighted an expansion of pilot zones for China’s digital yuan. In the report plans were layer out to encourage qualified regions to apply to China’s central bank for the right to host pilot zones, with the aim of popularizing the use of the national digital currency during the 2022 Beijing Olympics Games, due to be held this September.
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