Ant Financial — the Chinese fintech company formerly known as Alipay— has launched a new consortium blockchain platform called OpenChain. According to an announcement on April 16, the platform would allow developers and small and micro enterprises to utilize innovative blockchain tools. They can now explore the technology further and develop better applications and smart contracts on the blockchain. Ant Financial’s General Manager, Jin Ge, claims that the launch of OpenChain will boost the efforts of almost one million SMEs and developers over the next three years. Pushing blockchain beyond tech and financial giants According to the release, SMEs and …

In the past month, Chinese payments platform Alipay has disclosed a number of patents relating to and revealing more details of China’s planned central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan. According to a report in local media outlet Interchain Pulse on March 23, Alipay is set to play an integral part in the major functions of the currency when it is launched. Alipay to be a secondary issuer of China’s CBDC The first patent, published Feb. 21, revealed that Alipay is likely to be involved as a third-party operating agent in secondary issuance of the currency. This would put …

Billionaire Jack Ma, owner of payment app Alipay, seeks to lure 44 million merchants to expand services for the app’s 900 million users in everything from real estate purchases to restaurant and cinema bookings, according to a March 10 report by Bloomberg. Alipay is aiming to attract these merchants and service providers in China with mini programs — lite apps that sit on top of its interface and provide quick access to services. Coronavirus has boosted demand for online services Demand for online services has reportedly surged in China since the outbreak of Coronavirus in December. He Yongming, vice president …

Blockchain-based education technology provider Odem has announced it will provide its platform to schools and universities that were disrupted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In a press release published on March 9, Odem states it is offering its “online integrated learning platform and certification management system free for use to schools and educators to continue educating students until it is safe to return to campus.” Odem freely offers platform to schools disrupted by coronavirus In an interview with Cointelegraph, CEO and co-founder of Odem Richard Maaghul stated that the coronavirus “is a big concern for us and we …

The government of Hubei, the Chinese province at the epicenter of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, issued a report on Feb. 18 detailing measures taken against the disease. The officials revealed that they tracked both offline and online purchases of fever medicine to organize relief efforts. As the emergency situation shows no signs of slowing down, provincial officials have taken a set of measures to better control the outbreak. Pharmacies and medical institutions are now required to ask for valid ID from anyone purchasing fever medicine, presumably to treat the virus. In addition to newly enacted measures, the government began an …

Insurance firms in China use blockchain to manage coronavirus-related claims amid the outbreak. English-language local news outlet South China Morning Post reported on Feb. 9 that this month Chinese online mutual aid platform Xiang Hu Bao added the coronavirus to the illnesses eligible for the maximum one-time payout of around $14,300 (100,000 yuan). Blockchain used for insurance claim processing Xiang Hu Bao is not an insurance policy, but a blockchain-based collective claim-sharing platform that counts 104 million users. Per the report, blockchain technology is employed by the system to prevent fraud and allow for faster claim processing. Xiang Hu Bao …

Binance’s official account on China’s major microblogging website Weibo has been blocked. The account of the major global exchange was blocked on Nov. 13, purportedly due to violations of the site’s policies, Taiwan-based publication The China Times reported on Nov. 15. At press time, Binance’s Weibo page is blocked, displaying a notice that the account has violated provisions of the Weibo Community Convention. All content, including Binance’s posts and the number of followers, is currently unavailable. Cointelegraph has contacted Binance for a comment on the issue, but the exchange has not replied as of press time. Binance’s plans to launch …

Earlier in October 2019, Binance announced a fiat on-ramp for crypto trading via Chinese payment services Alipay and WeChat. This move was part of the exchange giant’s peer-to-peer (P2P) trading rollout for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT) against the Chinese yuan. The public nature of this announcement did bring questions to the fore regarding the use of payment channels like Alipay and WeChat for crypto trading. Alipay did, in fact, release statements distancing itself from cryptocurrency trading activities, with Binance later clarifying that it wasn’t working directly with the aforementioned payment services. Meanwhile the evolving narrative around the …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week U.S. SEC deems $1.7 billion Telegram offering illegal, orders halt In what may be the highest-level action it has ever taken, the SEC has halted the $1.7 billion digital token offering for Gram (GRM) tokens. In a massive setback for the upcoming Telegram Open Network (TON), the regulator has filed an emergency action and restraining …

Alipay, the digital payment arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has declared that it will be banning any transactions related to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Combating illicit players On Oct. 10, Alipay reiterated its anti-crypto stance in a Twitter thread, which warned that the company is closely monitoring over-the-counter transactions to identify irregular behavior and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Alipay wrote: “If any transactions are identified as being related to bitcoin or other virtual currencies, @Alipay immediately stops the relevant payment services.” This move follows various reports that Alipay is being used for BTC transactions. Binance uses Alipay …

On June 10, one of the top cryptocurrency media sites, CCN, initially announced that it would shut down, citing a June 3 Google Core Update for stifling its traffic. Writing on the website, the director and founder of CCN Markets and Hawkfish AS, Jonas Borchgrevink, blamed the update for an overnight fall of 71% of the site’s mobile traffic. While Borchgrevink noted that ups and downs are part of the business, such a vertiginous fall is unprecedented in its history. At the time of the post, the founder said that it could not support new additions to its team or …

Alipay and WeChat Pay reportedly requested that crypto exchange Huobi remove their payment services from its over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk, local media agency Sina reported on Jan. 25. Major Chinese digital payments providers, Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay, have reportedly sent legal letters to Huobi, claiming that using both their services and logos on the exchange’s OTC market is unauthorized. According to information acquired by Sina, both Alipay and WeChat Pay have not provided Huobi with its payment services, nor given it permission to use their respective trademarks. However, Huobi’s OTC trading platform reportedly allows users to upload QR …