Tencent Gifts NFTs to Employees but the Meaning was not to Get Rich from Selling

November 11^th was Tencent’s anniversary. To celebrate its 23^rd year, Tencent gifted one Penguin NFT (non-fungible tokens) to every employee.

Metaverse was a hot topic this year worldwide, and NFT became a popular investment. When Tencent announced their gifting of NFTs, people were paying close attention to the news, hoping their childhood friend, the QQ Penguin, could get them rich.

However, to avoid people selling and speculating the NFTs, Tencent purposely limits NFT transfers within Tencent’s internal blockchain addresses. Non-employees cannot receive the NFTs. Thus, the QQ Penguin NFTs are merely souvenirs for Tencent’s employees.

Some people may ask, what’s the point of issuing NFTs if you don’t speculate on them? Aren’t they just pictures?

Collecting NFTs is comparable to collecting physical artwork. NFTs were not created for speculation or making money. They were created to strengthen intellectual property protection.

Similar to cryptocurrency, NFTs are also based on blockchain. They are non-divided, irreplaceable, and unique. All raw data, such as the identification of the NFT creator, the transaction time, and the NFT value, can be kept permanently on the blockchain.

Therefore, the artists would never worry about plagiarism, and NFT collectors would never worry about thieves or purchasing counterfeits.

Apart from artwork collections, NFTs have many other applications. For instance, certificates and diplomas can be kept online as “NFT digital certificates”. Everyone can check the certificate’s issuing organization, issuing time, and receiver, which will eliminate fake certificates and diplomas.

The development of blockchain in China is still at an early stage. Thanks to Metaverse, NFT becomes well-known to the public. Although the majority still equates blockchain to speculation of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, blockchain is more than that.

Whether it is intellectual property protection or provenance, blockchain can play a huge role in the future society, which can combat various market problems such as counterfeiting and data management.