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The city of Shanghai has been subject to mandatory quarantine for a month, limiting its 25 million residents to their homes. The latest COVID-19 outbreak that began in March this year has grown into the worst infection zone since the start of the pandemic.
As the virus infects hundreds of thousands of people, an extremely restrictive blockade has prevented residents from leaving their homes for weeks. In addition to the spike in infections, the blockade has prevented people from obtaining food and medical treatment, and introduced other austerity measures.
This led to frustrated citizens taking to the internet to unite and vent their anger. However, government authorities are said to be censoring videos that appear on the internet showing detainees in Shanghai.
When the information stored on the blockchain is immutable, many people have turned to using NFT to serve the above purpose and preserve these experiences.
The NFT utility continues to grow.
On April 22, a video called Voices of April was published on YouTube with a voice about the experiences from Shanghai residents during the blockade. As soon as it was published on YouTube, it was developed into an NFT and listed on OpenSea.
According to a comment to Reuters from a Shanghai-based programmer, the preservation of the video, which authorities have tried to remove, is part of a "people's rebellion."
As of Wednesday, more than 2,300 video-related items could be found on the OpenSea market. Moreover, hundreds of NFTs related to the blockade in Shanghai have emerged. This includes additional voice-over videos claiming to be from inside quarantine camps and digital artwork depicting life under the blockade.
Another Shanghai-based Twitter user tweeted the creation of his NFT with a screenshot of a Shanghai COVID map from late April.
Can't sleep. Get up create a new multi polygon NFT for Shanghai. GN, again. I can sleep well. #NFTs #NFTCommuntiy https://t.co/E3Gp9AMBt2
— valenqian.eth (@valenqian1983) April 26, 2022
This case out of Shanghai shows another use and utility case for creating NFT – namely, the preservation of digital artifacts against censorship.
China and cryptocurrencies
The Chinese government has taken a tough stance against digital assets, going so far as to ban trading in the country and forcing Bitcoin (BTC) miners to shut down their operations.
Although the country has banned the use of cryptocurrencies outside, they still find the underlying technology useful. The government's central bank digital currency (CBDC), the electronic yuan, is currently being practically tested across the country. In three cities, residents can use the digital yuan to pay taxes. Meanwhile, there have been reports that the Chinese government could use blockchain and Web3 technologies for centralized development.
