Tencent’s WeBank to Handle Tech Infrastructure for China’s National Blockchain Network

WeBank, China’s first digital bank in the sphere of helping small businesses access funding needed for operations, will now provide the technical infrastructure required for the deployment of China’s national blockchain network.

According to a report from state-owned Financial News media platform, WeBank will be in charge of the creation and delivery of FISCO BCOS (Be Credible, Open & Secure) open-source consortium chain, for the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN). The BSN Development Alliance secretary-general Tan Min has said that the network among other things is looking to make applications a lot more cost-effective. Tan Min said:

“BSN is committed to changing the current high cost of alliance chain applications, providing developers with a public blockchain resource environment based on the Internet concept, and relying on existing network resources and data centres in various provinces and cities to establish urban public nodes throughout the country.”

The BSN consortium comprises 14 members which are all charged with the development of several blockchain applications that will run on and be supported by the network. Apart from Tencent’s WeBank, other members include the State Information Center, crypto exchange Huobi China and other state-operated tech firms including China Mobile, China Telecom and China UnionPay.

The FISCO BCOS platform was launched by WeBank towards last year’s end and was developed in its entirety by WeBank, Shenzhen Securities Communication, Huawei and Tencent Cloud.

WeBank began in December 2014 and launched as the country’s first digital bank after receiving authorization from the China Regulatory and Securities Commission. It later began to offer other blockchain services. At the time, it was announced that the company began with a 3 billion yuan capital backed by a few investors including Liye Group, Tencent and Baiyeyuan with Tencent controlling 30% of the company’s total share capital as the largest shareholder.

BSN’s network efforts have already been tested in at least 25 cities in China, with tests carried out in Singapore and Hong Kong as well. The report states that the offering is already being deployed in 30 additional cities with a goal to reach 200 cities by 2020. It also adds that BSN’s efforts will crash costs associated with the development, deployment, operation and supervision of the blockchain applications. It will be able to do this because all of its maintenance efforts will be unified, suggesting that all individual problems could very easily be solved at once.

China is still making deliberate moves in the creation and deployment of blockchain services with these moves seriously heightened after President Xi Jinping’s public endorsement of blockchain technology. The country is now trying to create a national blockchain network that will unify several efforts by the government and specifically power many public services such as energy management, finance requirements, along with legal and telecommunications needs as well.