China’s tech giants promise speculation-free NFTs – TechCrunch

The future of non-fungible tokens is getting more clarity in China as the country’s tech giants come together to formulate standards for the nascent industry.

China Cultural Industry Association is a joint venture of Tencent, Ant Group and Baidu. issued a “self-disciplined development proposal” for the “digital collectible industry,” a rebranded term for NFT in China to do away with the technology’s financial aspects.

Industry associations don’t have the power to regulate, but they can help develop best practices and standards within an industry. According to information on its website, the China Cultural Industry Association was established with permission from State Council. It counts Tencent and Alibaba among its members. website.

China’s NFT enthusiasts have been watching out for regulatory directions from the top. After China outlawed cryptocurrency trading, the speculation was that NFTs in their purest form — traded with cryptocurrencies on global, public blockchains, freely and anonymously — would not be allowed in the country.

This appears to be the case. In April, China’s financial associations proposed that NFTs must not be used for securitization or transacted in cryptocurrencies.

China’s NFT industry may be a step closer to regulation with the country’s largest platform operators taking a stance. Tencent, Ant Group and other digital collectible platforms proposed that they hold the appropriate regulatory permits, ensure security of underlying Blockchain technologies, enforce user real identity checks, increase intellectual property protection, ban financial speculations and promote rational consumption among their users.

China’s tech companies have been testing the waters since before NFT regulations were introduced. The digital marketplaces were launched by the behemoths Ant Group, Baidu, and Tencent. They are based on private, collaborative chains. To prevent price gouging, users can only purchase with the Chinese fiat currency RMB.

One company decided to expand its ambitions beyond China in order to explore the full potential of NFTs. In April, Bilibili, China’s top user-generated video streaming site, commissioned a Singapore-based company to launch an Ethereum-based NFT collection inspired by the site’s brand assets.