Chinese Government To Integrate Crypto, NFT, in Its Digital Economy

The Shanghai Municipal People’s Government of China has included blockchain, NFT, and the metaverse in a five-year plan to develop its digital economy. This revelation came on July 12, 2022, in a Chinese document addressed to governments of all districts and the municipal government’s committees, offices and bureaus, urging them to “implement it carefully.”

Under article two of their proposition, the government of Shanghai intends to promote NFTs and other assets and to “support leading enterprises to explore the construction of NFT trading platforms.” They also plan to pilot the protection of digital rights and “the global circulation of digital IP.”

According to article three of the document, the Chinese government is looking at advancing the layout of a new generation of network forms and exploring the critical points of Web3. This includes multi-platform OpenID (digital identity recognition framework), distributed data storage, decentralized domain name resolution system, and end-to-end encrypted communication technology.

The document further listed other innovative activities the Chinese government plans to carry out using blockchain technology. It read:

Promote digital trusted transactions based on blockchain and electronic identity verification technologies. Promote big data trusted transactions, use consensus algorithms to achieve trust and transaction confirmation, and focus on developing smart contract management and operation platforms.

It is noteworthy that they will be developing open source platforms, NFTs and other business models to accelerate the exploration of digital technology applications in virtual assets, artworks, intellectual property, games, etc. This is an interesting development that comes after years of bans and regulations.