The Beijing municipal government on Aug. 23 announced a two-year (2022-2024) metaverse innovation and development plan that would require all districts to adhere to the newly released Web3 innovation plan. The development action plan refers to the Metaverse as a new generation of information technology integration and innovation that would drive the growth of the internet towards Web3. The innovation plan focuses on promoting the development of metaverse-related industries and helping Beijing build a benchmark city for the digital economy. The action plan demands that various districts build technological infrastructure at a city level and promote its use in various …

China’s internet giant Tencent has reportedly shut down one of the two nonfungible token (NFT) platforms owing to declining sales aided by the regressive monetary policies of the Chinese government. Tencent shut down one of its NFT platforms on July 1, while the other one is struggling to remain afloat. A report from a local daily indicates that the wind-down process for the same began in May. The tech giant transferred key executives responsible for managing the NFT platform in the last week of May and completely removed the digital collectible section from its Tencent News app by the first …

The Guangdong province’s Development and Reform Commission has reportedly busted an illegal crypto mining farm secretly operating in an electric vehicle charging station. The secret crypto mining farm was busted in the city of Guangzhou, where law enforcement agencies have constantly been making inspections around cities to enforce and eradicate any form of mining operations in the region, reported a local publication. The covert mining operation used over 190 crypto mining machines estimated to be worth 5 million yuan ($7,91,450), which were seized on the spot. The authorities claimed that even though mining operations consume a lot of energy, they …

People’s Bank of China, the central bank of the country, claimed in a recent note that China's share in the global Bitcoin (BTC) transactions has rapidly dropped from over 90% to 10%. The Financial Stability Bureau of the Chinese central bank released a comprehensive note on Wednesday discussing the impact of the crypto crackdown on the financial markets. The official notice claimed that all peer-to-peer exchanges in the country had been eradicated, which eventually curbed the hype around digital currency transactions. A Google translated version of the note read: “The global proportion of Bitcoin transactions in China dropped rapidly from …

Bitcoin network’s proof-of-work mining consensus has been a topic of evironmental, social and governance (ESG) debates for a long time and a new study may only add to the growing controversy around BTC's carbon footprint. A new research report titled “Revisiting Bitcoin’s carbon footprint” published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Joules has highlighted that the Chinese crypto mining ban might not have contributed to the reduction in the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin network as propagated by many Bitcoiners, on the contrary, it has increased by 17%. China was the primary hub for Bitcoin miners before May 2021 and accounted …

China’s hardline policy on crypto took another turn on Thursday as the Supreme Court of the country revised its judicial interpretation for illegal fundraising to include digital currency transactions. The Chinese Supreme Court issued a revised version of its "Decision on Amending the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases of Illegal Fund Raising". Just In: For the first time, the Supreme Court of China has included virtual currency transactions in the judicial interpretation of illegal fundraising, which is mainly to punish the behavior of absorbing …

Beijing-based Bitmain has partnered with a United States-based sustainable Bitcoin miner, Merkle Standard, contributing capital investment, expertise and parts. As part of the joint venture, Bitmain will contribute to the development of up to 500 MW of clean digital mining infrastructure at Merkle Standard's hydro-powered facilities in Eastern Washington. Bitmain is a household name in the Bitcoin ecosystem, famed for the Antminer brand, the name behind popular Bitcoin ASIC miners the S9 and S19. Merkle Standard claims to be a carbon-conscious BTC miner, keen to become net carbon negative by year-end. Merkle Standard will install up to 150,000 Bitmain mining …

With the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics completed and all competing athletes currently in China, two members of Congress are warning of the potential dangers of using digital yuan at the events. According to a Friday report from Reuters, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Feb. 3 expressing concern that the Chinese government could use the games to promote greater adoption of its central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. The country has been conducting trials of the CBDC since April 2020, later announcing …

Shanghai, China's most crowded city, is looking for ways to use metaverse in public services over the next five years. Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology's five-year development plan for the electronic information industry listed four frontiers for exploration, and one of them is metaverse. According to a CNBC report, the paper called for promoting the metaverse's use in public services, business offices, social leisure, industrial manufacturing, production safety, and electronic games. The commission plans to encourage further study and development of underlying technologies, such as sensors, real-time interactions and blockchain technology. China's interest in new technology has …

The Chinese government is launching another digital yuan lottery to stimulate its ongoing digital currency trials, this time in the capital of Beijing. The Beijing Local Financial Supervision and Administration officially announced Tuesday that the government will distribute 40 million digital yuan ($6.2 million) to Beijing residents as part of a new digital currency pilot. Starting in June, the program features “red envelopes” — a traditional way of gifting money — with each providing a free online wallet containing 200 digital yuan ($31). These red envelopes will be distributed to 200,000 lottery winners, who must download an application to use …

Beijing authorities are reportedly conducting inspections of crypto mining data centers to better understand their impact on energy consumption, Reuters reported on Thursday. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology on Tuesday sent an emergency notice to the city’s data center operators asking them to report whether they are involved in mining Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. The notice required data centers to report the amount of power consumed by crypto mining, the report notes. A bureau official said that notice recipients include China’s top-three telecom operators. He noted that he was unaware of the reason behind the …

Several courts in China have implemented blockchain technology as a way to secure properties with an electronic seal. The Executive Bureau of the People's Court in Haidian District, Beijing, has reportedly deployed a blockchain-based electronic seal to secure a property in Chaoyang district. E-sealing system applies blockchain to protect the property By applying blockchain-powered e-sealing, courts are able to securely monitor a property in real-time with help of video surveillance, local news agency the Global Times reported on July 5. Specifically, if the property is disturbed or being damaged, the blockchain system automatically turns on a surveillance mode and sends …