CHINESE METAVERSE TO LOOK DIFFERENT THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD’S

Chinese search provider Baidu had announced a self-developed metaverse last year in December. The year when China took a policy decision to curb all private crypto activities from the country by tagging them ‘illegal.’ However, interestingly, this year China was also the front runner to launch an e-CNY CBDC during the Beijing Olympics. Many commentators fear, the e-CNY will be a centralized version of a digital currency under the PBoC’s surveillance.

Now, as per reports, Shanghai officials are exploring metaverse opportunities that could become an “important platform that contains the intersection between the virtual world and the real world.”

That being said, will China go to a route when its metaverse is, in fact, centralized? Some experts think it might be the case, just like the internet. China’s internet firewall has kept foreign companies like Facebook and Google out of the domestic ecosystem. Instead, local companies rule the roost on all fronts. With metaverse opportunities rising, Mario Stefanidis, vice president of research at Roundhill Investments, told The Wire China that it could the case with Web3 as well.

“It will be much easier for China to oversee the development of a local metaverse rather than allowing users to access the ‘global metaverse’ and spending significant resources censoring and blocking certain experiences.”

Having said that, according to local estimates, 3700 Chinese companies have applied for metaverse and related registrations.

In this regard, Du Zhengping, head of the state-backed China Mobile Communications Association’s metaverse industry committee had told Reuters that, “Traditional Chinese internet businesses developed first and were then regulated. Industries like the metaverse will be regulated as they are built.”

The South China Morning Post had reported earlier this year that many trademark applications containing the word yuan yuzhou or metaverse were rejected by the National Intellectual Property Administration. Meanwhile, similar applications by Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, and ByteDance are pending review.

However, many consider centralization going against the very ethos of Web3. Eloi Gerard, a VR entrepreneur had stated, “The idea of the metaverse is that one moves between virtual worlds…this goes immediately against the idea of one party, one voice, one vision.”

With that being said, China’s tech giants are looking to dive deep into the space despite the challenges, competing in the trademark race.

One of the most common and serious cyber-attacks involves ransomware. These attacks have been increasing not only in number but also in severity. In the first half of 2020, average ransomware payments increased by 60%, with Bitcoin used for most payments. Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis released new data on 10 February about ransomware activity related to cryptocurrency in 2021.

exceeded that of the first half of 2020. Suggests to us that 2021 will eventually be revealed to have been an even bigger year for ransomware.”

Ransomware strains

The report shed light on ransomware activity related to cryptocurrency in 2021. The graph below showed the total cryptocurrency value received by ransomware addresses between 2016 to 2021. The report stated,

“Despite these numbers, anecdotal evidence, plus the fact that ransomware revenue in the first half of 2021

Conti was the biggest ransomware strain by revenue in 2021, extorting at least $180 million from victims. Conti, thought to be based in Russia, was a ransomware syndicate selling its program as a service to affiliates for a fee. Darkside followed at the second spot. It extracted nearly $100 million in crypto value.

The average ransomware payment size reached a record high of $118,000 in 2021. This marked a 26% increase from the average of $88,000 in 2020.

Here’s the interesting bit- most strains stayed active for a short amount of time before becoming dormant. Conti was active throughout the entirety of 2021.

Such groups would halt operations then reopen under a new name.

One reason for the increase in ransom sizes was ransomware attackers’ focus on carrying out highly-targeted attacks against large organizations, thanks to the larger average payment size akin to a “big game hunting” strategy. Most attacks were financially motivated. Others focused on “deception, espionage, reputational damage and disruption of the enemy government’s operations.”

Uses

North Korean crypto hackers had a ‘banner year‘ in 2021 targeted for ransomware attacks. Reportedly, the hackers stole almost $400m (£291m) worth of digital assets in at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms last year.