Kelly Robertson
China is serious about blockchain with a number of companies in the world’s most populous country working on solutions that take advantage of distributed ledger technologies.
In today’s article we are looking at how a few Chinese companies are looking to implement blockchain and use it to improve things across the board…
1. Banking
Banking is one of those industries that will radically be changed with the help of blockchain.
China Merchants Bank is already testing the technology; earlier this year, it had successfully incorporated blockchain into its business regarding global cash management, cross-border direct settlement and unified account management.
As a result, information transmission time between the head office and overseas branches was shortened while avoiding falsified information.
2. Asset-backed security issue
The first blockchain-aided exchange-traded Asset-Backed Security (ABS) was issued on the Shanghai Securities Exchange on September 19th. The 400 million Yuan (around $60.4 million) ABS was powered by Baidu’s blockchain technology.
Baidu has built a blockchain as a service for the ABS, with all participating parties on the consortium blockchain, including Baidu Finance which was the security provider, the brokers, the rating agency and the law firm.
Information on the asset and on the company that issued the ABS were both disclosed via the blockchain.
3. Copyright protection
A copyright trade and protection portal using blockchain technology went online in Shanghai in May, giving each item publicized on it a unique “digital DNA.” This is used to record the information of the content’s creator, owner and release time, in addition to the content itself.
Once on the platform, content can be promoted for commercial use or free sharing. The data cannot be damaged or falsified, according to its operator, a local IT startup company called Yuanben.
4. Charity fund guarding
This endeavor was pursued by Qschou.com, a crowdfunding site that serves critically ill patients. It is using blockchain to help streamline the process and show where the money raised on its platform goes.
“By using blockchain, or light chain as we call it, people who donate cash will be able to track their donations and see it goes to the right places,” said Yu Liang, chief operating officer at Qingsongchou Network Technology Co Ltd, which runs the site.
5. Healthcare data sharing and protection
Healthcare data sharing is one of the more promising sectors for the blockchain technology, and it is everything but surprising to see Chinese companies embracing it for that purpose.
Alihealth, which is the medical arm of Alibaba, and the government of Changzhou city in East China’s Jiangsu province have rolled out a pilot program to integrate medical data sparsely located in different hospitals, with the help of blockchain. The software enables patients with critical diseases to transfer their physical records directly to doctors at larger hospitals.
On the other hand, doctors who are authorized to see these records could know about these patients immediately without physical examinations.
6. Missing child information sharing
Tencent has built a blockchain platform that allows parents to register information on their missing child once, from where it [information] gets shared instantly via different child-finding platforms that are connected by this blockchain.
Unrelated to this use case, Tencent has also built a blockchain solution called TrustSQL that promises to improve efficiency and reduce risks in various sectors, including the finance and sharing economy.
