Tencent Cloud, the cloud computing arm of the Chinese internet giant Tencent, is preparing to bring together 100 organizations this year to establish the Industry Blockchain League. On June 4, China Banking News reported that the blockchain association will include members from various sectors including enterprises, industry associations, industry media, investment organisations, tertiary institutions and think tanks. Three pillars The organizations will together work on the collective goal of bringing blockchain standards and conduct research and development for industrial implementation. The group will work in three different committees: a blockchain standards committee, a technical committee and a commercial ecosystem committee. …
Tencent, the operator of Chinese social media app WeChat, is launching a blockchain accelerator. Announced on the company’s website on April 29, the “Tencent Industrial Accelerator” is open to both early-stage and mature blockchain startups, with a total of 30 places available. To qualify, projects must have at least one financing round behind them. Applications are being accepted until June 6. What does the accelerator offer? Tencent’s blockchain accelerator will focus on a variety of recruitment areas including industrial blockchain solutions and blockchain applications for data sharing, supply chain financing and digital asset transactions. Other recruitment areas will focus on …
Tencent’s digital bank WeBank is exploring the integration of the DAML smart contract language for its consortium blockchain FISCO BCOS — the chain that will undergird China’s national Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN). On April 16, WeBank announced that integration of the Digital Asset Modeling Language (DAML) — open sourced by its creator, software firm Digital Asset, last year — would help it deliver pioneering blockchain solutions across finance, supply chain and other sectors in China and worldwide. Developed back in 2016, DAML is an expressive language designed for financial institutions to model and execute agreements using distributed ledger technology (DLT). …
Tencent, the operator of Chinese social media app WeChat, is planning to create a digital currency research group for the further advancement of blockchain technology research projects. On Dec. 23, Chinese media outlet iFeng reported that the Chinese internet giant released a statement to its employees saying that the company is currently on the lookout for the new head of the research group. The yet-to-be-established digital currency research group will reportedly focus on Tencent’s further advancement in the digital payment industry by utilizing blockchain technology. Cointelegraph contacted Tencent regarding these latest developments but had yet to receive a response as …
The world’s largest diamond mining firm, Russia’s Alrosa, has partnered with Tencent, the operator of Chinese social media app WeChat, on a new blockchain-based e-commerce project. Together with blockchain platform Everledger, Tencent and Alrosa will launch a new diamond-focused retail mini-program targeted at WeChat’s one billion active users, according to a Dec. 16 press release. In a joint statement, the three firms said the program aims to improve transparency and consumer trust across the diamond supply chain, enabling social media users to purchase diamonds with full knowledge of their origin, characteristics and ownership history. Ethical credentials The three firms claim …
Facebook’s Libra stablecoin would be a serious threat to WeChat Pay, the payment service’s parent company Tencent admitted in a recent blockchain whitepaper. Asian news outlet EjinSight reported on Oct. 24 that in the document Tencent acknowledges that international expansion of Chinese mobile payments offerings would be threatened if Libra launched. In the newly released whitepaper, Tencent illustrated the effectiveness of Libra’s expansion strategy: “It’s a safe play resorting to the strategy of ‘encircling the cities from the rural areas,’ in which Libra coin could quickly enter markets with underdeveloped financial infrastructure, especially those that do not have a credible …
On Oct. 13, Canadian social media and messaging app Kik revealed it’s “here to stay.” This was an apparent reversal from what the company's CEO, Ted Livingston, said in a blog post — that it was considering shutting down. It became clear just five days later why it was “here to stay.” A Santa Monica-based holding company, MediaLab, had signed an agreement with Kik Interactive to buy its Kik messaging platform. From angel investment to $100M ICO Back in 2009, a group of students from the University of Waterloo in Canada came together to create new technologies for use on …
Naspers, the largest shareholder of Chinese Internet giant Tencent, has participated in a $15 million investment in blockchain game developer Immutable. Key investors Immutable, a Sydney-based blockchain gaming startup, completed a new funding round led by Naspers and Galaxy Digital EOS VC Fund, the company announced in a blog post on Sept. 23. As reported by the Australian Financial Review (AFR), other investors also included Sydney-based VC firm Reinventure and American private investment firm Apex Capital. Scaling from 13,000 to 1 million gamers projected According to the report, Immutable's flagship game Gods Unchained has made more than $4.5 million in …