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As interest in NFT continues to grow in China, Shanghai-based high-tech startup, Bianjie, has announced the successful transfer of the first NFT from the Blockchain Services Network (BSN) Open Permissioned Blockchain (OPB) to the OpenSea Marketplace.
Using the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC), the series of NFTs created by traditional Chinese culture studio Rongbaozhai were successfully transferred from BSN’s OPB WenChang Chain to the Ethereum network.
Yifan He, the CEO of Red Date Technology, the firm behind BSN, had earlier noted that OPBs on the BSN are the only way NFTs will be allowed in China. He had added that NFTs will be widely used in China in the next five years but they won’t have to be linked to crypto or public and permissionless chains.
Following a clampdown on cryptocurrencies, attention started shifting to the NFT verse in China which the government has so far tolerated though state media has been quick to warn of ‘huge bubble’ in the space. From Chinese internet giants like Tencent launching NFT trading platform Huanhe in August and Alipay releasing 8,000 limited-edition NFTs based on two pieces of artwork in June, the NFT trend got popularised in a sector that’s been considered to still be in its early stages.
The market for NFTs has been dominated by the Ethereum blockchain which requires sellers and buyers of minted NFT artworks to have Ethereum wallets and ETH to complete their transactions. However, since crypto-related activities have been banned in China, it leaves the Chinese market with a much sought-after alternative across the NFT landscape.
Bianjie is the core development team behind IRISnet, the interchain service hub for next-gen distributed applications and one of the main open-source early contributors of the Cosmos network project. The Cosmos/IRISnet ecosystem recently launched Uptick App as its first NFT app with the aim of filling the alternative gap in the Chinese market. The app sought to bring more diversity to the NFT market as it makes the Cosmos network the first mainnet to allow for IBC and have an integrated NFT function in the Cosmos ecosystem.
“We believe that societies across the globe are heading towards a new form of digital ownership and a new economy — one that’s built on blockchain,”says Harriet Cao, Co-Founder of Bianjie, on the transfer from BSN’s OPB WenChang Chain which was launched in February 2021. “The successful cross-chain transfer of Chinese traditional artwork NFTs unveils diverse possibilities of exploring more business implementations through Open Permissioned Blockchains with interchain technology.”
Cao adds that with so many authorized organizations involved in the transfer process and an increasing number of Chinese traditional artworks being launched, more people will show interest in and explore the new realm with time.
For Charleen Fei, Head of IBC at The Interchain Foundation, interchain solutions, as shown by the growth of the NFT market and its propagation across multiple chains, will improve usage and liquidity for assets to move freely across blockchain and NFT markets which have been hampered by segmentation.
China is currently considering adding NFTs to its lists of assets that the Anti-Money Laundering unit of the People’s Bank of China will be monitoring as an official of the bank warns against the country’s growing interest in NFTs and metaverse-related activities.
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