Blockchain: a backbone solution for cashless society, smart cities

BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhuanet) -- "Blockchain will not be a side product, but a backbone solution for a cashless society and smart cities," said Xiaochen Zhang, FinTech4Good President, in an interview with Xinhuanet.

"Though the blockchain technology is still in its infancy and a lot of questions are yet to be answered, it holds great potential in addressing some of the primary concerns of individuals living in a cashless society -- cyber security, data sharing and data autonomy," said Zhang, who also serves as the founding chair of the Smart City Blockchain Lab, on Monday.

A few days ago, Ant Financial, e-commerce giant Alibaba's affiliate, announced to spend nearly half a billion dollars to push forward the construction of a cashless society.

Here from electricity grid to medical devices, to payment system will be connected to the network.

Even houses, cars, appliances and clothes will have the ability to make smart decisions.

"In a smart and cashless transition, we will see a data explosion," Zhang added, "Through blockchain based smart contracts, digital information flow can be automated which will dramatically reduce costs of each transaction."

"Through distributed ledger technology, individuals can gain back data autonomy while still enjoy the benefits of smart living enabled by IoTs (Internet of Things) and other smart technology," he noted.

"We have seen a rising number of reputable organizations and industrial leaders enter into this space and invest in this new trend, especially in China," he said. The Smart City Blockchain Lab was established to facilitate this important transformation.

In the next few years, he said, it will work with partners to identity impactful blockchain based on smart city use cases and co-create collaborative pilot projects in China and other emerging markets. The Smart City Lab is the second industry blockchain lab that FinTech4Good has initiated since the Insurance Blockchain Lab was launched in 2016 in Beijing, according to Zhang.

Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-05/04/c_136265948.htm