The ongoing protests in China against the extreme COVID lockdown policies by the Government have adopted a new turn towards NFTs. As the Chinese people took over the streets, the creators uploaded pictures of the live scene in the country as digital collectibles on OpenSea. Are NFTs the next medium to start and fund movements in the world?
When the concept of non-fungible tokens was first introduced it mostly surrounded digital art and PFP avatars for art enthusiasts to collect. The collectibles were also seen as an investment to gain profits among investors.
However, there has been a lowkey shift in the utility of NFTs over the past year. Many organizations, politicians, and countries are using this new technology to fund their cause or raise voices against injustice.
Back when Ukraine was attacked, the country was in dire need of funds to defend itself from Russia. Thus, the NFT collectors emerged as powerful donors who sent their valuable digital assets to the Government of Ukraine to help them monetarily through blockchain.
Similarly, there was a Ukrainian creator who designed unique digital artworks and sold them as NFTs to gather funds and donate them to different non-profit organizations. Since then, NFTs have become more than just a decorative asset.
Recently, Chinese citizens took over the local streets to protest against the Government regarding the extreme lockdown amidst COVID widespread.
A few days ago, a fire broke out in a building, which took away the lives of 10 people. The authorities prevented people from getting out due to pandemic policy; this angered the public and now they’re protesting against the communist government.
Besides the protest, a collection of NFTs was posted on OpenSea that shows photographs of people on the streets.
The first collection called ‘Silent Speech’ minted on Polygon comprises 135 collectibles containing photographs of graffiti, signage, protestors, and social media posts live for auction price starting from 0.01 ETH (around 11 dollars).
The second collection is the ‘Blank Paper Movement’ featuring 24 NFTs on Ethereum that depicts protestors holding blank papers. This is a unique movement that was first started by students in Hong Kong. The description in Chinese translates to:
“What does a blank paper represent, what does holding up a blank paper represent, all papers are the same, the meaning given is different.”
Other than that, there is the ‘Urumqi 2022.11.24’ collection that pays tribute to the dead who were caught in the fire in the city of Urumqi.
How will these NFTs help the protestors?
Although no details have been shared by the creators of these collections, the pictures seem to make the international world aware of what’s happening in the country. The media might be silent about it or manipulate the intent, but these NFTs speak the truth against the government.
