Great potential for blockchain to be widely adopted in online finance

Blockchain has great potential to be adopted in online finance for validating assets and transactions, establishing credit rating and improving security, Shanghai Daily learned today at the LendIt FinTech summit in Shanghai.

Blockchain, which distributes a data base network, provides a tamper-proof data structure for virtual transactions. The technology, used mainly in Bitcoin, is now adopted in a wider range of industries including finance and retail.

Almost all finance firms, credit rating firms, and banks are looking to adopt blockchain, said Jason Jones, co-founder of LendIt.

Tencent-invested WeBank has identified blockchain as part of a key strategy known as ABCD, referring to artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud and data. It has set up a blockchain alliance comprising 100 members, said Fan Ruibin, general manager of WeBank’s technology and innovation division.

“Blockchain does make sense for institutions like WeBank without off-line outlets,” Fan said.