to record and save memories of Their cityAfter a month-long COVID-19 lockdown, Shanghai residents are turning to blockchain, minting videos, photos and artwork for capture they ordeal as non-fungible tokens (NTFs) to ensure It can be shared and remembered.
Unable to leave their own homes for weeks at a time of The city and its 25 million residents have unleashed their frustrations online, venting stringent lockdown restrictions and difficulties getting food and sharing stories. of Hardship, such as the inability of patients to obtain medical treatment.
This led to the cat and mouse condensation game with Chinese censors, which pledged to step up the police of Internet and group Chats to prevent what they describe as rumors and efforts to foment sedition over boil public frustration with full closure.
While some people I have defiantly continued re-posting like this contentOthers are heading to NFT markets like The world’s largest, OpenSea, is where users can mint content And buy or sell it using digital currencies, attracted in part of fact That data is recorded on The blockchain is not erasable.
Height of The moment of closing Shanghai is rooted on April 22, when netizens clashed with censorship overnight share a six- One-minute video entitled “The Voice” of April”, montage of recorded voices over the classroom of Shanghai outbreak.
Like of Monday, 786 different items It can be related to the video found on OpenSea, along with hundreds of Other NFTs related to closure in Shanghai.
On April 23, a Chinese user on Twitter with imFong handle said in Widely Retweeted post”I poured” the sound of April’s video is in NFT and its metadata has been frozen. This video will be forever on IPFS”, referring to the interplanetary file systemType of distributed network.
Like most major foreign social media And news Platforms, Twitter is banned in China, although the population can access He. She using VPN networks.
A programmer from Shanghai told Reuters that he was among those in The city who Watch their efforts to keep the video alive as part of a “people’s rebellion. “
He himself minted the NFT headquarters on screenshot of Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown map, showing how bone of The city sealed off from outside world.
“Being stuck in home Because of The outbreak leaves me with a lot of he said speaking on the condition of Anonymity.
The other Shanghai content available on OpenSea as NFTs for Sale includes Weibo flyers containing Complaints about restrictions and photos from inside quarantine and business centers of art Inspired by life under lockdown.
Simon Fong, 49-yearOld freelance designer from Malaysia who He lived in Shanghai for Nine years, started creating sarcastic illustrations on life under lockdown in the pattern of Mao era propaganda posters.
He began to mint it in NFTs, after he got engaged in The market since late last yearand now managed to sell nine of his works for an average price of 0.1 ether ($290)
His works include dramatic scenes of PCR testing, as well as the demands of residents for government stakes.
“I chose the propaganda style of the Mao era for These pieces because some people They say the lockdown situation is taking Shanghai back.”
While China banned cryptocurrency tradingYou see blockchain as promising technology And NFTs are gaining momentum in The state is embraced by the state media ports and up tech Companies including Ant Group and Tencent Holdings.
prolonged closure in Shanghai, China financial axis, is a part of Controversial in Beijing zero- Covid-19 strategya policy which has an increased risk to economy.
COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai that started in March, it was the worst in China since the first months of epidemic in 2020. Hundreds of Thousands were injured in The city.
