What Is Antchain?

Tips

Thanks to the cryptocurrency boom over the last couple of years, blockchain companies are popping up like mushrooms in the fintech industry. Although China is actively cracking down on cryptocurrency mining, one blockchain company called Antchain is thriving—so much that it was one of the main sponsors for the 2020 UEFA Championship.

So what is Antchain all about, and what exactly does it do?

Where Did Antchain Originate?

Launched in July 2020, Antchain is the blockchain technology arm of Ant Group, one of the largest tech conglomerates in China and the world. Ant Group runs Alipay, the largest digital payment system in China.

Ant Group and Alipay, in turn, are affiliated with Alibaba, founded by billionaire Jack Ma who was reported to have “disappeared” in November 2020 prior to Ant Group’s IPO listing.

Antchain was initially known as “Ant Blockchain,” an in-house blockchain system that Ant Group launched alongside Alipay back in 2017. One year later, Ant Blockchain began expanding to offer blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to Ant Group’s partners. In July 2020, to push for further development, Ant Group officially split Ant Blockchain into a separate entity and rebranded the company as Antchain.

Besides blockchain, Antchain is also involved in the development of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), risk control technologies, and other value-added tech services.

How Does Antchain Work?

Model of one big blue cube with small blue cubes linked to it, representing blockchain technology

Image Credit: Antchain/Twitter

Antchain’s goal is to accelerate digital transformation in the financial technology (fintech) space via blockchain. The company currently offers two BaaS products to its partners: BaaS myChain and BaaS Hyperledger Fabric. Both products offer different features depending on clients’ needs:

Screen capture of a table comparing Antchain's BaaS services from Antchain's website

In addition to its BaaS services, Antchain also offers what is called Morse MPC. According to Antchain’s official website, Morse MPC is a platform that uses cryptography, multi-party computation technology, and privacy protection technology to “enable secure computation in a local box, [ensuring] that all data cooperative parties can share data while keeping their original data private.”

Why Have We Not Heard About Antchain?

Alipay's Top Scorer trophy and the UEFA Euro 2020 trophy placed side by side in a press conference

Image Credit: Antchain/Twitter

Antchain claims that the company handles an average of over 100 million digital assets on its blockchains daily, and its affiliate Alipay handles approximately one billion transactions every day.

So, why have we not heard of Antchain?

Up until now, Antchain’s operations have largely been restricted to one region—greater China—and its businesses have mainly been conducted in one language, Mandarin. The existing dominance of blockchain companies such as Gemini and Coinbase may also be why Antchain has had a late start in the industry.

However, despite Antchain’s late arrival in the industry, the company is wasting no time growing beyond its homeland. Since its inception, Antchain has been actively pursuing international expansion; this is in line with the Chinese government’s 2019 decision to make blockchain a national infrastructure in which to research, develop, and invest.

Antchain is expanding particularly through two channels: partnerships with tech giants and sponsorships in other fields such as sports.

Partnerships

In 2020, Ant Group signed agreements with Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and chipmaker Intel to enable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to lease IT services via Antchain.

UEFA Alipay Top Scorer statue in gold

Image Credit: UEFA/UEFA.com

Sponsorships

In 2018, Alipay signed an eight-year deal with UEFA and became the official global payment, digital wallet, and fintech partner for the 2020 and 2024 UEFA Championships.

In early June 2021, ahead of the rescheduled 2020 European Championship, UEFA announced that it had signed a five-year sponsorship with Antchain to work on the application of blockchain in soccer.

With this, Alipay and Antchain have also unveiled a brand new UEFA Euro 2020 Top Scorer trophy where the winner’s scoring records will be uploaded to the blockchain ledger for permanent storage. Soccer megastar Cristiano Ronaldo took home the Top Scorer trophy and etched his name into the Antchain blockchain for eternity.

China’s Leading Blockchain Developer

Blockchain technology presents a gold mine of opportunities, and Ant Group’s foray into the scene with Antchain shows just how lucrative the market is.

Most recently, Antchain announced that its latest service offering, the Blockchain Transmission Network, is now accessible in West Europe and Southeast Asia. Thus, it seems that Antchain’s growth is not slowing down anytime soon, and at this rate, it may very well take over present major players to become the new blockchain and fintech leader in the space.


blockchain-oracle-feature-image-chainlink

What Is a Blockchain Oracle?

How do blockchain smart contracts access data from outside their network?


About The Author

Products You May Like

Articles You May Like

Apple Reportedly Acquires Startup DarwinAI, Could Fuel Tim Cook’s AI Vision
Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile Trailer Released Ahead of Global Launch on March 21: All You Need to Know
OnePlus Removes TV, Monitor Categories From India Website, Signals Potential Withdrawal From Market
Android 15 Could Reportedly Allow Users to Archive Apps to Save Space
Dragon’s Dogma 2, Rise of the Ronin, WWE 2K24 and More: The Biggest Game Releases of March

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.