Actress Xu Jinglei invests in NFT art, Shanghai taps blockchain for governance: Blockheads

Renowned Chinese actress Xu Jinglei has invested in nearly 500 pieces of NFT artwork. Alipay updates its user agreement to prevent NFT speculation. Shanghai is using blockchain technology in governance, and Chengdu’s government wants to cultivate leading companies in blockchain technology. Honor releases a smartphone supporting a hard wallet for digital yuan. 

NFT in China

Famed Chinese actress and director Xu Jinglei updated her Instagram profile picture with a non-fungible token (NFT) artwork created by an NFT design team called Animetas. Xu bought the NFT for 0.88 Ethereum ($2,892) on Aug. 6. Her account on Opensea, an NFT marketplace, shows she has collected 497 pieces of NFT art. Many of her collections are from Animetas, a team creating digital avatars artworks on the Ethereum blockchain. (8BTCnews)

Alipay NFT policy changes 

Chinese mobile payment app Alipay updated its user service agreement, asking users to keep their NFTs for at least 180 days before sending them to others, signaling the platform’s attempt to curb NFT speculation. Alipay also requires NFT senders and receivers to be at least 14 years old, and to pass real-name verification checks. The mobile payment app issued two styles of NFT artwork in late June. Buyers can set the artwork as a background on the payment app. (AI Caijing, in Chinese)

Regional government and blockchain

• Chinese state media People’s Daily published an article praising Shanghai’s Pudong district as a model for digital governance. The piece, published Sunday, said Pudong district employed technology such as 5G, blockchain, big data, cloud computing, and the internet of things, to build applications for the government to get a holographic panorama of the district’s 1,200 square kilometers. (People’s Daily, in Chinese)

• The government of the southwestern city of Chengdu announced on Monday plans to cultivate leading companies in several cutting-edge tech sectors. The Chengdu New Economic Development Commission, a government agency, listed at least 24 new technological areas to explore. The list includes 6G, privacy-preserving computing, blockchain, quantum computing, and satellite Internet. (China Star Market, Chinese) 

Hard wallet for digital yuan

Chinese smartphone maker Honor launched a flagship smartphone called The Magic 3 that supports a digital yuan hardware wallet. The Magic 3 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 888 chip to support the wallet, according to CEO George Zhao at the release event. Compared with digital wallets installed on software like apps, hardware wallets have higher security for storing digital assets, according to a white paper released by China’s central bank. Honor was Huawei’s budget subbrand until November 2020. (Coindesk)