Alibaba’s Ant Financial testing enterprise blockchain network targeting small businesses
- The fintech arm of Alibaba Group is currently testing the Ant Blockchain Open Community, which targets small businesses and individual developers
Alipay operator Ant Financial Services is aiming to launch a new enterprise blockchain network, the Ant Blockchain Open Community, in the next three months.
Speaking at the World Blockchain Summit at Wuzhen in Southeastern China last Friday, Ant Financial’s executive director of technology and business innovation Li Jieli said that the alliance aimed to support small businesses and individual developers.
“We found that many small businesses and individual developers want to develop applications for blockchain, but do not know where to start and the cost is relatively high,” Li said. “We hope to open the alliance to this sizeable group, and have provided many standardised services.”
Li said the company launched the first phase of testing on Friday for a small group of invited participants. After a month, beta testing will be opened up to more developers and companies, he added.
“During this time, we will continue to listen to user feedback, optimise the product and prepare to bring a brand new service to the market in three months,” he said.
Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, first unveiled the plan for an enterprise blockchain network last September at Alibaba’s annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou.