Ant Chain's 16,000 Dunhuang-themed NFT skins were snapped up! Alipay may become the world's largest NFT trading platform?

This article is sourced from 8btc, authored by Wang Jiajian.

On the morning of June 23, two NFT skins flooded social media, namely the Dunhuang Flying Apsaras and the Nine-Colored Deer skins. They are globally limited to only 16,000 pieces.

Interestingly, this NFT is issued based on AntChain and has a unique code exclusive to AntChain. To purchase, one needs 10 Ant points + 9.9 yuan.

NFT + Dunhuang concept + AntChain + Alipay + 16,000 pieces, these two skins are likely to be snapped up instantly, with unprecedented popularity.

There are two interesting points about this event. First, NFTs may break into the mainstream again, as a mini-program called "Fan Particle" on Alipay has surfaced, meaning that Alipay users can directly purchase NFTs with RMB. Second, these NFTs on AntChain, according to the official rules, seem to differ from our understanding of blockchain NFTs; in fact, some practitioners have complained that this is not an NFT at all, but just a JPG.

"Alipay Payment Skin" Launches, Selling 158,400 in One Night

These two NFTs are jointly released by Alipay and the Dunhuang Art Research Institute. Taking the Dunhuang Lucky Flying Apsaras skin as an example, there are a total of 8,000 pieces available. They need to be snatched up, but only require 10 Alipay points and 9.9 yuan. This is absolutely "cheap" compared to the prices in the blockchain world, which often start at several ETH.

Currently, these two skins have sold out, meaning the project has generated a total of 158,400 yuan in sales.

They are called skins because the corresponding Dunhuang Flying Apsaras image can be used as the picture on the Alipay payment page. This means that after purchasing this skin, users will be "one in a million" among global Alipay users when displaying their payment code.

Some friends have expressed that using this skin gives a small sense of pride during payment, as it is almost impossible to "bump into" someone else with the same skin, which is very interesting.

Alipay describes NFTs as follows: NFTs (digital works) refer to original artistic works replicated in a designated storage space on AntChain, identified by a unique corresponding virtual certificate issued on the AntChain platform.

The AntChain platform (also known as the blockchain platform) refers to a platform that provides trusted storage technology services for the issuance/transaction of digital works and their virtual certificates, based on public cloud technology services through Ant Blockchain technology.

Will AntChain's "Fan Particle" Become the Largest NFT Trading Place in the World?

How do users purchase these two skins? This leads us to a mini-program called "AntChain Fan Particle." By opening Alipay and searching for the keywords "Fan Particle" or "NFT," you can find it.

According to official information, Fan Particle is launched by AntChain, allowing users to support their favorite digital works and artists through this platform. When users own NFT art collectibles supported by Ant technology, Fan Particle also provides functions for collection appreciation, showcasing to friends, and gifting.

In short, this is an NFT trading and display platform built into Alipay! Moreover, users can directly purchase NFT digital artworks using Alipay.

Currently, the functionality of this mini-program is extremely simple. At a glance, there are only two types of products: one is the Dunhuang · Alipay payment skin, and the other is some digital art. Currently, several digital artworks by various artists are being auctioned on this platform. Taking the work "INSOMNIA" by artist Le Yi as an example, the highest bid for this digital artwork is currently 801 yuan, with 11 participants. This digital artwork is also an NFT on AntChain.

Today, through the Dunhuang · Alipay payment skin, this product called Fan Particle has become popular in the cryptocurrency circle, but it seems that the product is still very rough, belonging to the early stage of launch.

However, one can imagine that based on Alipay's hundreds of millions of users, combined with the convenience of direct payment through Alipay, along with the integration of NFT works and other Alipay products, if this product becomes a hit, could it possibly become the largest NFT trading platform in the world?

In any case, this is something to look forward to, full of imagination.

Fake NFT? Real JPG?

However, regarding the NFT of the Dunhuang · Alipay skin provided by the Fan Particle platform, it feels a bit strange.

Let's take a look at the official introduction to the usage rules of this NFT.

1. This NFT is a specific digital work that can be applied to specific business scenario interfaces.

2. After obtaining the NFT, users can display, study, research, appreciate, and download compressed images in specific business scenario interfaces, such as being used as a payment code skin for Alipay.

3. The copyright of the NFT digital work is owned by the issuer or the original creator, and users may not use the NFT digital work for any commercial purposes.

From these descriptions, it can be seen that although the skin purchased by users has NFT attributes, what they actually own is the usage rights of that digital work in specific scenarios, not the digital work itself corresponding to the NFT. This is a significant difference from the NFTs mentioned in the blockchain world. For example, it currently appears that the NFT purchased by users cannot be traded, and thus cannot have the potential for appreciation.

We checked the rules for currently auctioned digital art NFTs and found that the copyright statements for those NFTs also mention that the copyright belongs to the copyright holder, and users cannot use them for copyright-related commercial purposes after purchase.

So the question arises: what is the significance of users purchasing these NFTs? We might understand it as a way for fans to express their affection for their idols with money, as demonstrated by the Fan Particle product.

From the current introduction provided by Fan Particle, it is true that these works are on-chain, on AntChain, and are NFTs, but do not treat them as NFTs in the blockchain world that are tradable and confer copyright ownership of the works.

However, since this product is still in its early stages, we have reason to believe that with functional iterations, it will present more possibilities. After all, the self-introduction of Fan Particle also mentioned the "gifting" function.