China’s metaverse to evolve: will not decentralize crypto

• Experts believe that, while China is unlikely to decentralize cryptocurrency in the near future, NFTs and blockchain will continue to play a role in the Communist country’s Metaverse in the long run.

• According to experts, China’s Metaverse will evolve considerably different than other international marketplaces, and decentralized infrastructure may not be part of the game plan.

China’s plan for Web3 trends

China filters politically sensitive content by strictly regulating its domestic internet and prohibiting websites from other countries.

The Communist nation’s dislike for decentralization, according to NewZoo’s 2021 trend report “Intro to the Metaverse,” will not necessarily prohibit it from participating in the Metaverse, but the experience may be extremely different, comparable to how the internet looks different behind the Great Firewall.

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According to Mario Stefanidis, vice president of research at Roundhill Investments, China is likely to pursue a similar approach to Web3 trends.

In a press release announcing her new book, Parallel Metaverses: How the United States, China, and the Rest of the World Are Shaping Different Virtual Worlds, she stated that “the materialization of the Metaverse will occur amid continuing US-China geopolitical and technological rivalry.”

Nina Xiang, a journalist and the founder of Asian digital intelligence and data organization China Money Network, noted that the split will be especially visible between China’s metaverse and the United States.

Chinese firms are undoubtedly intrigued by the Metaverse’s possibilities. More than 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) was invested in Metaverse-related ventures in the three months ending November 30, 2021. According to Chinese crypto venture capital firm Sino Global, barely 2.1 billion yuan was invested in all of 2020.

China’s efforts in the Metaverse are still behind

The Sino Metaverse appears to be on track to follow in the footsteps of the web. When the internet initially became popular in the 1990s, many people speculated that technology would speed democracy in China.

According to a Reuters report published on January 27, China’s efforts in the Metaverse are still behind. It noted “reduced investment by domestic IT companies,” as well as “industry-leading goods like Meta’s Oculus virtual reality (VR) headsets being banned in China.”

Tencent, a Chinese entertainment business, is the world’s largest video gaming firm in terms of investment. In January of this year, it announced plans to buy VR gear firm Black Shark, and in a recent earnings call, business president Martin Lau termed the Metaverse a “serious opportunity.”

Gaming is an important component of the Metaverse, but it is subject to strict Chinese government censorship, which prohibits everything from strong violent material to representations of anything that could be considered as “obscene.” Over the last year, the government has also begun to enforce time limits on how long minors can spend playing video games.