10/06/2022 Alibaba Cloud launches NFT solution… then quickly memory holes it

The firm’s NFT marketplace solution included “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” infrastructure, but is no longer listed on its website despite still showing up in Google search results.

Alibaba Cloud launches NFT solution… then quickly memory holes it

The firm’s NFT marketplace solution included “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” infrastructure, but is no longer listed on its website despite still showing up in Google search results.

The cloud business unit of Chinese marketplace giant Alibaba Group Holdings launched a new NFT solution and then promptly deleted all mention of it online.

Trump’s Pro-Crypto Bluster at NFT Gala Lacked Policy Substance
Donald Trump dines with NFT mega-collectors during break from New York hush-money trial
How scientists are embracing NFTs

According to a now-deleted Twitter post announcing the launch on June 8, the firm’s NFT marketplace solution included “web hosting, digital marketing & content delivery” infrastructure, but is no longer listed on its website despite.

There are also no press releases or announcements related to the NFT solution on Alibaba’s website anymore, and while the solution’s webpage link still shows up in Google search results, it now redirects to Alibaba Cloud’s solution index page.

40d8d5b1-d35b-4b7e-8490-32915b713685.pngDeleted Alibaba Cloud tweet: WayBackMachine

The reason behind the deleted social media posts and delisting on its website are unclear at this stage. While crypto trading and mining are banned in China, there is a regulatory gray area with NFTs in the country — officials frown upon it but are yet to issue an outright ban.

The shortly lived NFT focused solution was set to offer Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) and Auto Scaling for marketplace growth, an SMS-integrated digital marketing service for sellers to connect with buyers, and a Global Delivery Service – Alibaba Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Server Load Balancer (SLB) capable of supporting 100,000 queries per second.

TheSouth China Morning Post(SCMP) — which is owned by Alibaba —notedthat the solution was intended for customers outside of mainland China, with a representative telling the publication that the solution was for Alibaba Cloud’s international website only.

The SCMP also stated that Alibaba affiliated companies such as Ant Group and Tencent Holdings have moved to avoid any potential regulatory pushback in the past by branding their listed NFTs as “digital collectibles.” They are also offered on private blockchains and are traded/purchased using Chinese fiat currency.

Alibaba Cloud does still have a new Metaverse-focused solution listed on its website that offers remote rendering, data analytics and AI, along with Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) as part of the private Alibaba Cloud Blockchain.

Under the Metaverse solution, the company does note that NFTs can be integrated into a Metaverse built off of Alibaba’s services, but the firm does not provide any of that specific infrastructure.

In April, the China Banking Association, the China Internet Finance Association and the Securities Association of China issued ajoint statement warning the publicaway from investing in NFTs due to “hidden risks” of the assets. They also noted that businesses should not consider NFTs like other financial products such as securities, precious metals, and other financial products.

Cointelegraph also reported in March that Chinese social media giants such as WeChat and WhaleTalkupdated their policiesto restrict or remove NFT platforms from their networks, citing a lack of regulatory clarity and fearing a government crackdown. However, Beijing is still yet to issue a blanket ban on the sector.

Arts

https://cointelegraph.com/news/alibaba-cloud-launches-nft-solution-then-quickly-memory-holes-it

Interesting NFTs
Magnificent
Discovery of a new planet.
Fidenza #6
Fidenza is by far my most versatile algorithm to date. Although the program stays focused on structured curves and blocks, the varieties of scale, organization, texture, and color usage it can employ create a wide array of generative possibilities. Additional project feature(s) => Scale:Jumbo, Turbulence:Med, Colors:Party Time, Have Margin:No, Spiral:No, Soft Shapes:No, Super Blocks:No, Collision Check:No Overlap, Outlined:No, Shape Angles:Curved, Density:High
RED#Ragdoll
Shalom! I'm RED#Ragdoll. I want to live in a world where people believe the world is flat. Sometimes I daydream of a life full of picking flowers, lasagna, and talking about how much I lift. Purrhaps this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
David vs the Virus
"An ode to the year everything changed" - Frank Wilder The story of the underdog is a reoccurring theme throughout history, and perhaps the most famous example is that of David vs Goliath. A tale about perseverance, in which David takes on and defeats the giant warrior using only his smarts and a stone. Famously depicted by Michelangelo's David statue. Fast forward to the present day in 2020 and we as humanity are faced with our own Goliath. An uncontrollable pandemic spread around the globe. Now with the entire planet being affected by this we understand the gravity of the situation at hand, whether it be a virus we’re fighting or other forces at play, there is indeed an energy out to shift the balance of the Universe… Regardless of our differences, in this moment must unite as one. With diligence, trust and belief we as a whole can come together to triumph against "the enemy". Stay vigilant my friends. Original score created by the one and only Phoenix Wilder.
The Scion
A young figure caught in a moment of distraction, aware only ephemerally of his unconscious being, as it engages in psychological and psychedelic layer spaces. His right arm casually cradles a moray eel; the figure is comfortable but not truly aware of the potentials for danger in such negligence. His shirt reads “Bello” in Pokemon style font, harkening back to a childhood straddling the millennial threshold. To his right side, out of the unconscious deep, shrouded alien heads propagate as a fractal totem, each new iteration a more sophisticated rendering of emotional masking over the cold mystery of the greys. As the scion of the Budgie-Sattva, the young man, in his distraction, is also simultaneously aware of higher levels of self discovery. To his left a psychological topology sets beneath the oracle side of an 8 ball ,hovering; its message a purest concept of acceptance. The “Scion” lettering is in 80’s HeMan style bold declaration. The lower right side of the painting is like a hybrid of melon, feathers, and seeds. The crystals in the background bring light; conducted, refracted, reflected, and dispersed, to balance the dark shadow of the figure’s physical body. The aura of the scion succeeds in layers to point, with a finger, and the crown chakra, toward a center of a mandala existing as nigh pure application of strokes, in essence painterly abstraction, but also revealing hints of the Aura of migraine, and the bi-hemispherical nature of the brain–noting concerns of the possibility of inherited mental disease. Yet the flourish of chakra as it sets against that center is robust, active, coherent, and reveling against all fear. Fundamentally, the piece speaks to the activation of one’s potential to begin to “Know Thyself”, and find greater awareness out of the enigmas of the mind–as an inculcated seed given to the rich soil of one’s own birthright.