NFT Gets to the Heart of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games

[TL;DR]

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After the Summer Olympics in 2008, China is hosting the 24th Winter Olympics. The event inspired the launch of Alibaba's NFT tokens.

Alibaba, a giant Chinese multinational technology company, announced the launch of four non-fungible tokens (NFTs) inspired by the sports on display at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

This is a positive sign amidst the uncertainty surrounding Chinese NFT regulations.

In addition, nWay has developed the licensed video game "Olympic Games Jam: Beijing 2022". What's special about it? Players from all over the world can win NFT digital pins.

THE GAMING TRADITION OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES

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It has become a tradition for the Olympic Games. Releasing a video game for each edition of the games allows the public to participate vicariously to strong and exciting moments. The last one to date - with more classic standards - was the one of the Tokyo Olympics, in 2020. But this year, it was necessary to adapt to one of the big trends of the moment: the Play-to-Earn and the NFT.


By putting digital art (NFT) into play that you can resell on the secondary market (and thus possibly earn money), the engagement around this video game should be quite high.

In detail, players will be able to participate in many competitions, customize their avatar, ... in short the gameplay promises a fairly complete and deep multiplayer experience. "This game will allow NFT players and collectors to not only engage in the Olympic Games, but also own a piece of Olympic history. We intend to offer regular updates in the coming months to keep players engaged and maintain the Olympic spirit," said Taehoon Kim, CEO of nWay, in a statement.

Alibaba launches sports-inspired NFTs
According to the South China Morning Post, the NFT collectibles are designed as virtual badges in the style of traditional Chinese ink art. The NFTs represent the four aspects covered by the event, namely speed skating, freestyle skiing, alpine skiing, and figure skating.

The NFTs will be available on Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces from Feb. 5 to Feb. 20, 2022, the last day of the world's biggest sporting event.

Each badge is sold at 8,888 pcs and will be distributed on four different days during this period. However, the availability of these badges will generally be limited to registered Alibaba 88Vip members.

The first NFT badge, which featured a speed skater, sold out quickly after its initial release on February 2.

China is okay with NFTs - for now
Unlike crypto-currencies, which are restricted by the government, China seems to support the concept of NFTs.

Despite this, companies and tech titans working on the release of NFTs avoid using the term "NFT" directly; instead, they refer to "digital collectibles," which are implicitly understood as virtual assets.

The Winter Olympics digital collection on Alibaba is only available to residents over the age of 14, and owners are not allowed to use these digital collections for commercial purposes.

There is growing interest in NFT - a blockchain-based digital asset - among Chinese companies.

Ant Group, the fintech arm of Alibaba, and social media giant Tencent have been early adopters of NFT, introducing dozens of NFT-integrated products since last summer. JD.com and Baidu have followed suit by launching their own digital collections.

On Christmas Eve, China's national news agency Xinhua stepped in, distributing more than 100,000 digital collections, representing news images of "historic moments in 2021."



Author: Gate.io Researcher: Aziz. H
* This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
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