Tencent, a Chinese entertainment company, has been accepted by the United Nations to lead a project to explore the creation of a standard technological and security framework for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to state-owned local media, the project, called a “technical framework for DLT-based digital collection services,” will be the world’s first UN-approved standards programme for NFTs. According to the South China Morning Post, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations organisation for Information and Communication Technology have accepted the initiative. This is expected to complete the first draft by the end of 2022. Currently, any ITU recommendations become mandatory and enforceable only when governments pass legislation enacting them.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government is working on its own state-backed Blockchain Services Network (BSN). This will help the Chinese government to continue supporting the implementation of non-cryptocurrency NFT projects, which will be banned once more in September 2021. Tencent will work on the project with Alibaba subsidiary Ant Group, the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and Zhejiang Lab.
To avoid criticism from the anti-crypto media and government, NFTs are sometimes described as “digital collectibles” in China. As a result, Chinese NFT creators prefer to create their collectibles on permissioned blockchains rather than public or decentralised blockchains like Ethereum or Solana.
At the end of last month, China announced the launch of a national strategy to accelerate blockchain research and innovation in important sectors such as manufacturing, energy, government data sharing and services, law enforcement, taxation, criminal trials, inspection, and cross-border financing.
