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Beijing to draft national Web3 development plan as authorities maintain draconian cryptocurrency ban on the mainland
- China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said a strategic Web3 development plan will be drafted ‘in line with the country’s conditions’
- The proposed draft will seek to encourage ‘new business models’, such as non-fungible tokens and decentralised applications
China will draft a national Web3 development plan to suit the country’s needs, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which did not mention cryptocurrencies even as Beijing maintains its support for Hong Kong’s ambition to become a major virtual-asset hub.
The Chinese government will enhance its research on Web3 and formulate a strategic development plan for the hypothetical next-generation version of the World Wide Web that is “in line with the country’s conditions”, the MIIT said in a statement published on Tuesday.
The statement was addressed to Hong Kong lawmaker Johnny Ng Kit-chong, who submitted policy proposals to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in March this year, asserting that Web3 would have a “profound and lasting” impact on the country’s economic and social progress.
A member of both the CPPCC and Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, Ng is a vocal advocate for developing the city’s virtual-asset industry. Last year, Ng’s start-up accelerator G-Rocket set up a new programme that aims to bring 1,000 Web3 companies to Hong Kong by 2025.
The MIIT on Tuesday said that the proposed draft will not only clarify the country’s Web3 development path, technological priorities and application models, but also sharpen focus on areas including government affairs and industry.
The proposed draft will seek to encourage “new business models”, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralised applications, while deepening the public’s understanding of Web3 technologies, according to the MIIT. It added that China also plans to roll out pilot applications for decentralised digital identities.
While the MIIT’s statement did not provide any update on China’s draconian cryptocurrency ban, it offered a glimpse into Beijing’s strategy to keep pace with what some describe as the next evolution of the internet.
The industry regulator’s proposed plan would represent China’s first national-level Web3 policy, following recent efforts by major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai to establish local development road maps for Web3.
Web3 is confused for crypto, NFTs and the metaverse, but what is it really?
Web3 is confused for crypto, NFTs and the metaverse, but what is it really?
Beijing has pledged support for Hong Kong to develop Web3, including cryptocurrency and other virtual assets. Chinese authorities, however, have remained steadfast in cracking down on crypto-related activities on the mainland.
Although the Web3 term is often conflated with cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the metaverse after rising in prominence at the same time and using some of the same underlying concepts like decentralisation, this iteration of the internet encompasses more than just blockchain-based assets and virtual worlds because it promises a more resilient web in the long term that is distributed across many different systems.
China is already set to start experimenting with a national, blockchain-based real-name verification system. The state-backed Blockchain-based Service Network and the Ministry of Public Security’s First Research Institute last week jointly launched the Real-Name Decentralised Identifier (RealDID) system.
The project allows users to store public cryptographic keys in a RealDID document published on a blockchain after real-name verification by the police’s Cyber Trusted Identity system. Among its purported benefits, RealDID aims to improve privacy by allowing internet users to log into online platforms without using their personal information such as phone numbers.
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