• The Chinese government announced the creation of the Metaverse Standardization Group.

• On September 11, 2023, MIIT unveiled the nation’s ambitious Three-Year Action Plan for the Industrial Innovation and Development of the Metaverse (2023-2025).

• The new group will establish guidelines, rules, and laws for organizations of metaverse platforms, ensuring positive growth for the franchise and the nation’s economy.

The Web3 industry has evolved from the simple functions of Bitcoin into a revolutionary technology ushering in a new age of applications. Today, decentralized applications have gained an extensive audience, with organizations and innovators pivoting to their dynamic nature and elevated performance. Unfortunately, it has its flaws. 

One of its core issues is its inability to function fully with standard regulatory frameworks. For instance, the crypto industry has had its ups and downs, with regulatory bodies and governments seeking to implement its lucrative nature within defined legal boundaries. 

Unfortunately, blockchain technology embodies the definition of decentralization; hence, governments and organizations must create new laws and rules. Alas, other pillars of web3, like NFT, the Metaverse, and Decentralized applications, suffer from the same issue. Fortunately, some have sought to develop friendly ecosystems, allowing such niches to thrive. 

In a recent development, China has announced the launch of the Metaverse Standardization Group. This group will dedicate its entire effort to developing Metaverse regulatory frameworks for its nationwide VR platform, the Yuanverse Platform.

This new launch aligns with China’s strategy of dominating this new digital era. If they complete the project, China will become the first region to develop laws governing and regulating a VR World.

China Launches the Metaverse Standardization Group

Since the fall of the crypto titan FTX, the world has entered a massive panic. Aside from dragging down the Web3 industry and instilling fear among investors and traders, the crypto crash highlighted a vital law with the injury. The core goal of the Web3 sector is to achieve global adoption and one day replace its predecessor, Web2.

However, achieving this grand feat is challenging. Today’s world is entering a digital era where most services, information, and products will be accessible via digital platforms. This means governments must set new laws and regulatory and legal boundaries to ensure a nation’s economy transitions alongside its technology.

This brings about a core issue, creating a neutral regulatory framework allowing web3 to exist and benefit a nation without infringing on its core nature: decentralization. We are far from achieving this, but several regions have made positive improvements to develop a legal ecosystem that benefits the nation and the technology.

One such region is China, whose government announced the creation of the Metaverse Standardization Group. According to the Chinese government, the group will consist of several Chinese universities, government institutions, and companies like Tencent, Huawei, Baidu, Netease, and Sense Time.

Also, The China People’s Court recognizes crypto as legal property.

The core aim of this initiative is to create a metaverse regulatory framework alongside the creation of its nationwide VR world, the Yuanverse platform.

On January 19, 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT) announced the formation of the group to establish guidelines, rules, and laws for organizations operating metaverse platforms, ensuring positive growth for the franchise and the nation’s economy.

MIIT based this proposal on the “needs of industrial development and industry management.” The Chinese government will release a publicity plan for the group on February 18.

The documentary outlines strategies and approaches to the region’s metaverse industry development. One of the core goals of the document is to establish three to five industrial clusters that revolve around emerging markets.

Despite the Metaverse industry facing some slow progress, many experts and analysts estimate that the VR world will be the future, facilitating most commercial networks worldwide.

Furthermore, as previously stated in various articles, the Metaverse is a core highlight of the web3 industry alongside digital ownership and DeFi. It’s a miniature version of the web3 goal as it houses all the pillars of blockchain and can create a sustainable virtual economy.

China intends to build advanced metaverse technology and industrial systems, leading to the creation of the Yuanverse Platform.

According to the documents, this task hinges on integrating and innovating critical technology such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and virtual reality within the metaverse landscape.

To accomplish this feat, China must dedicate some of its resources to advancing critical technologies like intelligent generation algorithms, distributed identity authentication, and data asset circulation.

China has always been a technological guru; hence, achieving the creation of the Yuanverse platform is an anticipated event. The problem comes in developing a metaverse regulatory framework.

For decades, plenty of regulatory bodies have failed at this attempt. The MIIT created the Metaverse Standardization Group to pull in the bright minds of its universities, technological gurus like Huawei, and government institutions to ensure the new regulatory framework covers all possible loopholes.

China does not seek to transform into a VR-based future but to become a leader, ushering the world into a new age. The action plan expects breakthroughs by 2025, but given the hype around this new regulatory group, it could come sooner than expected.

As per the documentation, the Metaverse Standardization Group seeks “To create a harmonious alignment between the global metaverse governance framework and domestic regulations. To nurture an inclusive, democratic, and transparent international governance system tailored specifically for the metaverse domain.”

Also, Read China to pay civil servants in Digital Yuan CBDC.