Alibaba Payments Subsidiary Launches AntChain Blockchain Solution

The payments subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ant Group, today launched a new blockchain solution dubbed AntChain. 

According to a report published on South China Morning Post, AntChain is built on top of Ant Group’s blockchain technology combining artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), secure computation and other technologies.

As part of the AntChain initiative, the Ant Group has built a new workstation similar in size to a laptop. It comes with built-in software and hardware accelerator meant to smoothen the functioning of blockchain applications.

AntChain’s workstation can reportedly reduce the set-up time to one-tenth of the usual and can increase transaction speeds by 30%. 

Over 100 million digital records uploaded daily

Ant Group stepped into the blockchain space in 2015 and started working on commercial applications on its blockchain last year. It now claims that it can support over one billion user accounts and process up to a billion transactions per day.

The company said that almost 100 million digital records including transaction details, copyright and property ownership certificates are uploaded onto AntChain every day. 

Ant Group has shown remarkable interest in the blockchain industry. In January this year, the company also announced the launch of an enterprise-focused blockchain platform called Ant Blockchain Open Alliance.

In an official statement, Li Jieli, the general manager of blockchain solutions and innovations at Ant said, “The application of industry blockchain is still at an early stage and [it] will support digital transactions, reducing costs in various industries as the digital economy develops.”