NEAR Protocol collaborates with Web3Games, a blockchain gaming company, and Chinese artist Heshan Huang. This year, the collaboration is to sell a non-fungible token (NFT)-based “real estate” at Alibaba’s Taobao Maker Festival.
The Maker festival
Alibaba-owned Taobao, one of China’s major e-commerce websites, founded the festival back in 2016. The aim is to encourage young Chinese artists and entrepreneurs to showcase their work and sell it on the platform. The event will take place from July 17 to July 25 at Shanghai’s National Exhibition and Convention Center.
According to NEAR, this year’s Taobao Maker Festival will be the first to incorporate NFTs. According to Huang, buyers would place their orders on Taobao and pay in renminbi, the local Chinese currency. However, to claim their NFT digital art, interested purchasers must visit a link and register for a NEAR wallet.
NFTs Escape China’s Wrath
However, NFTs, mostly built on decentralised public chains with native currencies, have escaped China’s latest crypto crackdown. Moreover, in April, a major gallery in Beijing staged a crypto-art show as the country shut down crypto mining and trading operations.
This is not the first time
However, this isn’t the first time an Alibaba-affiliated company has dabbled in NFTs.
In May, Alipay, a subsidiary of Alibaba, released two digital art pieces based on NFT. Owners of the paintings will be able to view them on the payment screen of their Alipay app anytime they make a purchase. Within hours, the sales shot up to 16,000 copies.
Alipay confirmed shortly after the sale that NFTs are not cryptocurrencies. Therefore, you cannot exchange them at a significantly higher price.
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