Chinese largest online and offline retailer JD.com has unveiled a large research lab for blockchain technologies in conjunction with the Institute of software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) and the Ying Wu College of computing at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). This is no surprise since JD.com which controls roughly 30 percent of the online Chinese market with 314 million users is known for implementing new technologies in e-commerce, finance and the delivery of services.
The jointly set up research lab will focus on solving stability and efficiency challenges that are hindering the wider application of the blockchain while also exploring new applications of the technology. This will involve collaborative research efforts into fundamental consensus protocols, privacy protection, security of decentralized applications, among other areas. The new research lab will be headed by Dr. Jian Pei, president of JD Big Data, Smart Supply Chain, as well as Dr. Zhenfeng Zhang, who is the Vice chief engineer at ISCAS. Dr. Tang and Zhang are well-known experts in cryptography and the Blockchain.
The partnership launched at a meeting in Beijing saw Dr. Pei make the following opening remarks; “JD.com is a pioneer in the utilization of blockchain technology, and we are dedicated to exploring its potential by investing in the growth of the blockchain ecosystem through key strategic and research partnerships,” he went to add that the partnership with NJIT and ISCAS would leverage the entities respective strengths and drive the continued development of the cutting edge technology and foster its wider adoption and deployment across many industries.
In his part, Dr. Joel S. Bloom, president of the New Jersey Institute of technology stated that NJIT was delighted to partner with one of the leading e-commerce companies globally in working on next level blockchain and cybersecurity technologies. He added that working with powerful international partners would indeed lead to great things. The deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhong Hua said quote; “Through this partnership, we will bring about blockchain innovation and promote industrial applications of blockchain technology.”
JD.com has been steadily working on improving the environment to pave way for mass adoption of the blockchain having launched the Blockchain as a service (BaaS) platform two months ago. The BaaS platform was put in place to assist commercial customers to build, and implement blockchain solutions without needing to develop the technology from scratch.
