Ant Group pivots further towards hard tech with new blockchain engine as its financial services operations remain under scrutiny

  • The Ant Group Digital Technologies unit has unveiled Letus, a way of lowering the storage costs of blockchain networks
  • Development suggest a further move towards hard tech for Ant as financial services business remains under regulatory scrutiny

Tracy Quin Shanghai
An Ant Group Co. booth at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

Ant Group, which is still undergoing a restructuring after regulators blocked its initial public offering in 2020, unveiled a blockchain storage engine on Thursday as the fintech giant signals a pivot towards hard tech.

The Ant Group Digital Technologies unit unveiled Letus, or Log-structured Efficient Trusted Universal Storage, at the Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, describing it as a way to lower the storage costs of blockchain networks, according to a press release on Thursday.

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