China launches official Olympic NFTs to commemorate the Winter Games | ZDNet

Despite China declaring all cryptocurrency transactions illegal in September 2021 and offering no protection if buyers continued to trade Bitcoin, it has launched a digital commemorative collection of NFTs today.

To celebrate Beijing’s successful hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Sports Culture Development Centre of the General Administration of Sport of China, the China Sports Museum, the Chinese Olympic Museum, Cultural Investment Holdings (official sponsor of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games), and the Shanghai Pudong Science Fiction Association have released an NFT collection.

Its “Snowflakes Illuminate the Centenary Journey of Winter Games” is the official digital commemorative collection (NFT) on the BSV NFTonShow platform.

This collection includes images featuring the mascot Xiao Cang. The NFTs represent visualizations of Xiao Cang as an athlete in five different athletic disciplines of the Winter Games, subtitled in both Chinese and English.

Fees to mint an NFT on this chain costs about $0.015 with network transaction charges of about $0.0004, which are considerably cheaper than current Ethereum gas fees.

These NFTs are stored on chain on the BSV blockchain. Usually only the web address of the NFT is stored on the blockchain and the actual NFT image is stored on the web.

This potentially makes an NFT image easy to steal — if you know where it is stored on the server.

The largest NFT marketplace is said to be OpenSea. However, even the largest marketplace is not totally safe. On February attackers stole stole $1.7 million in NFTs from OpenSea users.

They exploited a “flexibility” in Ethereum-based blockchain Wyvern Protocol to access the tokens.

This week Chinese officials seized 49 used Bitmain Antminers ASICs from unnamed individuals in Guangdong province, China. They were trying to smuggle the equipment into the country.

This haul comes after Chinese authorities cracked down on Bitcoin mining operations in November 2021, promising to raise electricity prices for anyone accessing subsidized power for mining.

The Snowflakes Winter Games NFTs can be bought in the form of blind boxes starting today. Collectors can pay RMB 19.9 to buy one blind box with an NFT.

After collecting all five basic NFTs, fans can re-mint them into the “Shining SSR Mascot” Xiao Cang, which is a Figure Skating NFT. Buyers will also be rewarded with official Olympic souvenirs.

Collectors can directly buy a set of five basic NFTs’ collection for RMB 399 and will also get the special Figure Skating NFT and official Olympic souvenirs. These collectors can participate in a Lucky Draw to win more prizes.

And if China clamps down further on digital currency and NFT trading, these Chinese NFTs will become very rare indeed.