Shanghai is China’s biggest city and its official plan for the next five years shows that it intends on boosting the development of new technologies and innovations. These include non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain technology, and the Web3 and Metaverse.
Five-year plan
The Municipal Government of Shanghai published a draft on July 13th for the 5-year plan for the development of the city’s economy. This is the 14th plan of its kind and the document has the aim of ensuring the deep integration of digital technology with the actual economy. It said that entrepreneurs would assess the market demand, while scientists would be focused on assessing the prospects of the technology.
Blockchain
The plan suggests offering support to enterprises that plan on developing NFT trading platforms and those that are focused on researching and promoting NFTs, along with other assets. There is a complete section dedicated to blockchain technology and commitment has been made for promoting the application and development of this technology.
The goal is to develop a blockchain development ecosystem that has independent control and boasts strong capabilities of innovation.
Metaverse and Web3
Metaverse ambitions are also highlighted in the plan, as the municipal government wants to speed up the research and development of a platform that can interact between real society and the virtual world. This would require core technologies to be developed and new platforms to be established with scenarios that have a diverse and richer content. The plan focuses on developing new forms of digital entertainment, such as sports, idols, and virtual concerts.
Web3 opportunities will also be explored in the next five years, which include research on communication technology with end-to-end encryption, distributed data storage, wireless network technology’s sixth generation, a decentralized DNS (domain name resolution system), a multi-platform OpenID, quantum communication and 6G deployment.
No mention of DeFi
Even though there is no mention of decentralized finance (DeFi) in the five-year plan, it does refer to ‘digital finance’. There is a commitment to promote smart contracts and improve custody and registration services, along with the settlement, payment, and asset trading.
However, it should be noted that this particular section is focused on exploring the pilot program of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) which is under development and called the digital yuan. The five-year plan also has some non-crypto related topics to cover, such as digital health, low-carbon energy, smart cities, intelligence service robots, and more.
Last month, the chief executive of Red Date Technology, Yifan He referred to cryptocurrencies as one of the biggest Ponzi schemes to have been introduced in human history. His tech firm is involved in the development of the country’s prominent blockchain project known as the Blockchain Service Network (BSN).
Last year, China launched a crackdown against cryptocurrencies and any activities related to them, including mining. While it may not be pro-crypto, the government has been positive towards the technology that powers these digital currencies i.e. blockchain technology because of its applications.
