Ant Group’s NFT platform punishes users for reselling digital collectibles - Pi...

Ant Group’s NFT platform punishes users for reselling digital collectibles

Non-fungible token

Ant Group’s NFT platform punishes users for reselling digital collectibles

Aron Chen

posted on February 24, 2022 10:30 pm

Non-fungible token (NFT) platform Jingtan, which is operated by Ant Group on consortium blockchain Antchain, used a phase “digital collectible” to describe the digital assets it issued, instead of referring it as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in an attempt to align with the government’s increasing scrutiny of any speculative activities related to crypto.

Jingtan, Alibaba affiliate Ant Group’s non-fungible token platform, has punished 56 accounts for reselling digital collectible for profits after scalpers maliciously drove up the price of various collections in online second-hand markets.

The platform said it firmly reject the resales of digital collectibles in any form because such wrongdoings carry a risk of fraud and may trigger unhealthy speculation.

“Digital collectibles are not speculative investment assets that can be resold for profit because it is contrary to the positioning of the words,” Jingtan said in a statement.

Jingtan sell a set of NFTs with starting price of CNY19.90. Credit: Jingtan

Jingtan, which is operated by Ant Group on its consortium blockchain Antchain, used a phase “digital collectible” to describe the digital assets it issued, instead of referring it as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in an attempt to align with the government’s increasing scrutiny of any speculative activities related to crypto.

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, videos, and videos, buyer’s ownership of NFTs recorded on that blockchain, meaning the digital commodities are unique and cannot be exchanged, depreciated and stole. People commonly use eth, the native token of Ethereum, to resell and trade NFTs on trading marketplace such as OpenSea.

Jingtan has previously punished accounts for other types of behaviors. In January, it said more than 300 accounts were punished for using plug-ins and scripts to snap up digital collectibles. They have been restricted from buying new NFTs.

It is not first time for Ant Group to oppose the resale of the digital collectibles. In August, 2021, Ant Group sold its first set of NFT features flying apsaras along with sacred deer from “Mogao Cave” in the Dunhuang of China’s Gansu province through its digital payment app Alipay. Ant’s releases of NFTs sparked hot debates on Chinese social media where netizens asked whether the NFTs has something to do with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and it can resell or not.

 Ant Group quickly answered the question by saying “the buyers do not own the copyrights of these NFTs, and it cannot be resold or auctioned.

Launched in April, 2020, Antchain is a non-token and consortium blockchain that enable small and micro enterprises and developers to deploy smart contracts and decentralized apps (DApps) on its network.

In a Q&A section at the annual Ethereum Developers Conference, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, admitted that consortium chains are more safe and conservative option than public chains like Ethereum in the short term, but he warned that the centralized controls of consortium blockchain may hinder its international expansion.