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.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a statement addressed to Hong Kong lawmaker Johnny Ng Kit-chong about the mainland’s Web3 development plan. Photo: Edmond So
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?
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.
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.