The White Paper sees Web3, a modern scientific and technological culmination, as the inevitable trend for the future of the internet industry. It encompasses immersive interactive experiences and a fusion of virtual and physical realities.

This scope includes a blend of sensory experiences and economic activities in the physical and virtual world, covering the Metaverse and Web3.

According to Star Mine data from Cailian Press, 46 listed companies, including Wanxing Technology and Tianyu Digital Science, are already positioning themselves in the Web3 space.

The White Paper identifies generative artificial intelligence, XR interaction terminals, and content creation tool platforms as the research hotspots of the Web3 industry.

Technology giants domestically and globally, including Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent, have been actively positioning themselves and leading industry development.

New applications such as digital personas and digital collections are rapidly developing, with innovative entities exploring practical applications.

Yu Jiajing, Executive Director of the China Mobile Communications Federation Metaverse Industry Committee, believes that Web3 is the most critical new species of the next digital economic era.

The digital economy, a more advanced stage of economic development and a future global direction, becomes a critical mechanism for stabilizing economic growth and achieving economic recovery in the context of global economic downturn pressure.

Web3, according to Yu, is a new value internet system that not only inherits the previous internet ecosystem but also further upgrades it with the autonomy of personal data ownership. It will create application fields that were not present in Web1.0 and Web2.0. For instance, prototypes appearing in the Metaverse will rapidly develop in Web3.

Wang Zhiwu, CEO of Yuanjing Technology, believes that the value of Web3 lies in better meeting people’s needs, improving production efficiency, promoting economic development, and advancing social progress.

The development of Web3 will also bring more business opportunities and innovative spaces, providing more possibilities for corporate development.

In the view of Wang Zhiwu, the positioning of Web3 by Tianyu Digital Science is to understand better consumer needs through the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, improve the quality and efficiency of products and services, achieve digital transformation, and further enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises.

The regulatory landscape in China is poised to evolve as Web3 continues to mature. On the one hand, the government is likely to encourage Web3 applications aligning with its technological innovation, economic growth, and social development objectives. On the other hand, it will also aim to mitigate risks associated with data privacy, cybercrime, and financial stability.

In response, Chinese companies investing in Web3 technology must carefully navigate this balance between innovation and regulation. It’s expected that companies will need to collaborate closely with regulators, comply with applicable laws and regulations, and possibly contribute to the development of new standards and guidelines for Web3.

Furthermore, in the spirit of decentralization that underpins Web3, Chinese regulators may have to consider regulations that ensure fair competition, protect user rights, and prevent the concentration of power or resources.

China’s approach to Web3 regulation, like the technology itself, is still in the early stages of development. As Web3 technologies mature and their societal impact becomes more apparent, Chinese regulations will also need to evolve accordingly, shaping the future of the country’s digital economy.

He also said that in the next step, the People’s Bank of China will continue to steadily promote the pilot research and development of eCNY in accordance with the deployment of the national 14th five-year plan, further deepening the pilot use of digital RMB in retail transactions, lifestyle payment, government services, and other scenarios.

The weekly active users in the first week of 2022 increased to 15.9 million from 1.6 million a week earlier, according to data from QuestMobile.

eCNY is the legal digital currency issued by People’s Bank of China, which is mainly used for cash in circulation. It is operated by designated operating institutions and exchanged to the public.

The currency is paid in electronic form, and the value is the same as that of RMB banknotes and coins. Digital RMB is currently issued by the people’s Bank of China on a small-scale pilot basis and is in the internal closed pilot test stage. There is no timetable for its formal launch.

At present, eCNY is only piloted in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian, and Winter Olympic Games scenes (Beijing and Zhangjiakou); and, other regions cannot register temporarily.

China’s eCNY adopts dual offline technology. As long as DC/EP digital wallet is installed on the mobile phones of both parties, eCNY can be used to complete transfer even without network and bank account.

According to the data of several mainstream mobile app stores such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, the total download of eCNY app has exceeded 20 million times, nearly doubling that of 10 days ago.

During the Winter Olympics, consumers can choose eCNY app or hardware wallet based on their own habits and preferences. The eCNY app can not only read the devices loaded with the eCNY hardware wallets, but also set the payment password, top up, balance and transaction details query, cash out, etc.

The number of eCNY App has already onboarded 49 merchants, including shopping, travel, lifestyle, tourism, and other major categories, including Jingdong, Meituan, Ele.me, Tmall Supermarket, Didi, iQiyi, Tencent Video, Baidu and other Internet businesses, as well as SF Express, Online State Grid (for electricity payment), Sinopec, China Telecom, etc.

Top 10 Smart City Forecast in China 2022-2025

There have been 96 companies on the Forbes Blockchain 50 list since it was created in 2019. And, only 12 have been included in all three years.

• Ant Group
• Cargill
• Coinbase
• DTCC
• IBM
• ING
• JPM
• Microsoft
• Samsung
• Signature Bank
• VMWare
• Walmart

Amazon, Citi, Google, Facebook, and Mastercard were among the 14 two-time members who dropped off the list this year.

2021, for the first time ever, saw half coming from outside of the U.S. 13 are from Europe and a record 12 are from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

Of particular note, Forbes included its first member from Africa (South Africa-based pulp producer Sappi), India (Tech Mahindra) and the Middle East (oil giant Saudi Aramco).

China has seven companies this year, including:

• the payments giant Ant Group (platforms: AntChain, Hyperledger Fabric, Quorum)
• search giant Baidu (platforms: Baidu Xuperchain, Hyperledger Fabric)
• Binance (platforms: Bitcoin, Binance Chain and dozens of others)
• China Construction Bank: platforms (BC Trade 2.0, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperchain)
• ICBC (platforms: ICBC Chain, Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Tendermint)
• Ping An (platform: FiMAX)
• Tencent (platform: FISCO BCOS),

China’s Bitcoin mining machines manufacturer Ebang filed for U.S. IPO

Ebang, founded in 2010, intends to list its shares on either the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “EBON”, according to its SEC filing.

It is a leading application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, chip design company and a leading manufacturer of high-performance Bitcoin mining machines, according to the F&S report. Ebang has strong ASIC chip design capability underpinned by nearly a decade of industry experience and expertise in the telecommunications business.

It’s one of the few fabless IC design companies with the advanced technology to independently design ASIC chips, having established access to third-party wafer foundry capacity and a proven in-house capability to produce blockchain and telecommunications products.

Ebang has dedicated their technology and efforts to ASIC applications for Bitcoin mining machines and is a leading Bitcoin mining machine producer in the global market in terms of computing power sold in 2019, according to the F&S report.

It is also one of the earliest contract manufacturers of Bitcoin mining machines in China to own self-developed proprietary ASIC chips. Its Ebit E10 model, launched in December 2017, was the first commercially available mining machine to use 10 nm ASIC chips among major mining machine producers.

Its latest commercialized Ebit E12 series mining machines, which incorporate the most recent iteration of its proprietary 10 nm ASIC chips, are capable of a hash rate of up to 50 TH/s and a computing power efficiency of 57W/TH.

Ebang has completed the design of our 8 nm ASIC chips and 7 nm ASIC chips and is ready to mass-produce our proprietary 8 nm ASIC chips when the market conditions become suitable. It currently focus on developing the proprietary 5 nm ASIC chips and mining machines for non-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin and Monero.

Ebang had revenues of US$319.0 million and US$109.1 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively. It had a gross profit of US$24.4 million in 2018 and a gross loss of US$30.6 million in 2019. And, its net losses were US$11.8 million and US$41.1 million in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

As of December 31, 2019, there were 5,035 cryptocurrencies in circulation with a total aggregate market capitalization of approximately US$193.4 billion, which represented a 48.5% increase from approximately US$130.2 billion as of December 31, 2018.

The largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, accounted for approximately 68.2% of the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies, or approximately US$131.9 billion as of December 31, 2019.

In recent years, sales of Bitcoin mining machines have increased as a result of the increasing adoption of blockchain technology and interest in cryptocurrencies, particularly when cryptocurrency prices increased.

Sales of Bitcoin computing hardware, the majority of which comprise sales of Bitcoin mining machines, have surged at a CAGR of 61.3% from approximately US$0.2 billion in 2015 to approximately US$1.4 billion in 2019 and are expected to further increase at a CAGR of 24.8% to approximately US$4.3 billion in 2024, according to the F&S report.