Ant Financial To Offer Its Blockchain Technology to Small and Medium Enterprises

The financial arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ant Financial has announced its intention to develop a Blockchain BaaS (Backend-as-a-service) platform.

According to reports on Chinese local news outlet, China Money Network, vice president of Ant financial, Jiang Guoefei, made this known at the Ant Technology Exploration Conference (ATEC) held in Hangzhou Yesterday.

He said as part of Ant financial’s commitment to the blockchain industry; the firm will make accessible its blockchain technology to small and medium scale enterprises within the blockchain space.

This move would help firms that do not have the financial capacity and technology to create innovative applications.

“In the past two years, Ant Financial has been working on two aspects about blockchain. One is to improve the technology, and the other is to open it up and accelerate the commercialization of blockchain applications,” said Jiang.

Ant Financial Chase Blockchain Prominence

So far, Ant Financial has been working towards the global adoption of the blockchain technology. According to reports in late June, the company trialed a remittance service using the blockchain technology.

This move saw Ant financial complete a funds transfer using its AliPayHK app in Hong Kong, and Filipino payment app GCash in three seconds.

In the same vein, Ant financial in partnership with Shanghai Huashan Hospital launched China’s first blockchain medical electronic bills in Zhejiang province and released China’s first blockchain electronic prescription.

Alibaba, the parent company of Alipay, has been widely involved in blockchain-related projects for a long time, with its founder, Jack Ma, reaffirming that the firm will still invest more in the blockchain industry.

This is evident in Ant Financial’s entrance into “definitive agreements” with investors to secure USD 14 billion in a Series C equity financing round to accelerate globalization and technology innovation.

Alibaba’s direct involvement in blockchain projects led to its ranking by IPR daily as the number one firm globally that has the highest number of blockchain-related patents. Its patents mainly focus on consensus mechanisms, smart contracts, trusted computing, privacy protection, and cross-chain interactions.

Do you think Alibaba will go down in history as one of the pioneers of the blockchain industry?

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