China Pins Future Hopes on Web3. But Will It Be a Centralized Disaster?

The adoption of Web3 is critical to the future success of China, says the country’s former head of digital currency.

Yao Qian recently published an article talking about the significance of forward-looking research and strategic infrastructure development. 

Yao predicted that Web3 will reconstruct the organizational form and business model of the Internet economy and is expected to greatly improve the existing Internet ecosystem.

“On the one hand, Web3 can realize the self-management of identities on the user side, and on the other hand, it can also realize the self-management of addresses on the network resource side, truly realizing the disintermediation of the end-to-end access process,” she said in the report.

While China continues to ban private cryptocurrencies, it sees a bright future in blockchain technology. And the adoption of Web3 would be a logical focus for the country’s leadership.

China launched its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) last month during the Beijing Winter Olympics, after running a pilot for several months.

China metaverse worth $50bn by 2025

And Chinese tech firm Baidu announced it was working on a metaverse project last Dec. According to one , the country is expected to be a $50 billion industry by 2025.

Chinese companies like NetEase, iQiyi, and Xiaohongshu have already applied for trademarks for metaverse-related projects, and it is estimated close to 4,000 Chinese companies have a presence in the space.

But how will decentralized Web3 work in centralised China?

The bigger is question is whether China will use its internet firewall to control the metaverse as well.

Last month, Mario Stefanidis, vice president of research at Roundhill Investments,  The Wire China that it will be easier for  to oversee its domestic metaverse market. 

China’s Securities Regulatory Commission has also come up with its own recommendations, which include building a high-quality distributed infrastructure, establishing common standards, establishing a legal framework for DAOs, a taxation framework, and well-governed technological innovation.