Alibaba fintech arm Ant launches new technology brand to help speed up digital transformation of traditional industries

Ant Group, operator of mobile payments service Alipay and the financial technology arm of Alibaba Group Holdings, launched a new blockchain solution on Thursday to help strengthen transparency and build trust in industries that traditionally involve large numbers of participants and complex processes.

Aggregating technologies including artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and secure computation, the AntChain solution is based on the company’s blockchain technology, which has been used in more than 50 use cases in information technology leasing, shipping, insurance claim processing, cross-border remittances and charitable donations, according to a company statement.

“Since our inception, building trust has been core to our offer to customers,” said Eric Jing, executive chairman of Ant Group. “We believe in blockchain’s potential to redefine trust in the digital age, and in solving real-life problems for our customers.”

The AntChain initiative includes a new workstation, similar in size to a laptop, which will accelerate blockchain applications via built-in software and a dedicated hardware accelerator, the company said. Parent Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The AntChain workstation can be set up in one tenth of the time it normally takes and increases transaction speed by 30 per cent with enhanced security algorithms and hardware encryption acceleration for secure computation, the company said.

Blockchain is a distributed database where every participant shares and synchronises information. The data, maintained in chained records called “blocks”, is not owned by any single authority. The decentralised design enables it to be transparent and tamper-resistant.