Alibaba’s Jack Ma: Blockchain, AI and IoT Still Need to Prove Their Relevance

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by Sofiko Abeslamidze · 3 min read
Alibaba’s Jack Ma: Blockchain, AI and IoT Still Need to Prove Their Relevance

The creator of China-based eBay claims three major pillars of the forthcoming industrial revolution are sentenced to oblivion unless they will prove their manufacturing relevance.

The robust technological set of blockchain, AI and IoT is a driving force of today’s business reality. The financial sector filed thousands of application forms that have perfectly fitted the technologies into the path of industry development. Blockchain in alliance with AI and IoT have been exposing feasible and turnkey solutions that streamline the settlement processes in banking, insurance, securities market and other facets of financial sphere.

Yet there are very few examples of these technologies serving the manufacturing goals and the giant industry players started to complain about a narrow-minded approach taken towards the cutting-edge technologies, and in relation to blockchain precisely.

During the World Artificial Intelligence Conference held in China, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Jack Ma was delivering the speech on a subject of the advanced technology adoption. As a part of the keynote, Ma stressed that the budding technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things are meaningless if it fails to boost the manufacturing industry and promote society’s development.

The entrepreneur shared his beliefs saying:

“The data age is major opportunity for manufacturers to reform the industry. But blockchain and IoT will be meaningless unless they can promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry and the evolution of the society towards a greener and more inclusive direction.”

Ma’s concerns are no wonder since in China alone the industrial sector represents a economical locomotive pumping around $3.1 trillion in the country’s budget. However, the innovative blockchain technologies are still performing in their infancy stage that cannot be compared to the results achieved once the technology will be loaded at full capacity and the hampering bugs will be eliminated.

Nevertheless, the concept of decentralized digital ledger has undergone numerous trials in the vast array of industries. Alibaba itself has outflanker IBM in the number of blockchain-related patents filed by company over the last year.

While Jack Ma agrees the blockchain has the potential to become an industry game changer, he remains very skeptical about the digital currencies running on the blockchain nods, saying:

“Alibaba has been working on blockchain for several years. Blockchain is not a bubble, but Bitcoin is a bubble. Bitcoin is just a tiny application of blockchain. Blockchain is not a huge gold mine.”

To recap, the overwhelmingly popular mobile payment app Alipay, run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, has recently announced it would block any account that uses its network to transact in Bitcoin (BTC), over-the-counter (OTC) trade and also reportedly said to conduct a “risk prevention” program intended to educate users about the dangers of false crypto-related “propaganda.”

In the meanwhile, following a very loosing couple of weeks, the cryptocurrency market seems to recover. Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) are among the most popular coins that make the biggest surge. Ripple exhibits a drastic 17% increase, while Ethereum and  Litecoin have mutedly raised in value for 4% and 1%  respespectively.

Blockchain News, Internet of Things News, News
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