China to build its own NFT industry using state-owned blockchain tech

The Chinese state-backed blockchain deployment infrastructure platform Blockchain Services Network (BSN) is moving closer to supporting NFTS — under the condition that the NFTs aren’t connected to cryptocurrency or public blockchains. 

According to the South China Morning Post, the BSN will offer Chinese companies and individuals the infrastructure to implement NFTs into personal user interfaces such as apps in exchange for Chinese yuan. This infrastructure will be called the BSN Distributed Digital Certificate, or BSN-DDC, and is expected to roll out by the end of January 2022. 

Because of the regulatory restrictions on public networks within China, so the BSN is using “open permissioned blockchains” instead. Permissioned blockchains put governance in the hands of selected groups and actors.

Twenty partners have already signed on to the BSN-DDC, such as the Cosmos blockchain network and a digital invoice service provider Baiwang, as per the South China Morning Post. A developer working on the project added that China’s NFTs have use cases spanning diplomas and car license plates, and the industry could turn a profit if 10 million NFTs are bought and sold. 

While NFTs have gained popularity in the digital art world in 2021, the technology’s use cases have increasingly expanded to other areas such as fashion, journalism and gaming. It seems now that a historically crypto-adverse country will pilot further use for the technology in 2022.