In line with China’s recent formal endorsement of the technology, one of the largest state-owned financial institutions has just launched its own blockchain. The new Bank of China platform aims to increase transparency and efficiency across the nation’s insurance industry
The insurance blockchain solution is the product of the bank’s insurance management IT department and partnerships with a number of leading insurance companies. The idea is to upload customers’ policy details to the ledger distributed amongst the network’s participants. Each participant can then access the details quickly as and when they need to as part of a claim process.
The platform, according to domestic news source Sina, is built using Hyperledger Fabric. This is somewhat surprising given the number of both private and public blockchain projects coming out of China. A recent Nasdaq report compiled evidence from multiple data sources to suggest the nation was already comfortably leading the globe in blockchain development even before the government endorsement.
Bank of China and IBM
However, the Bank of China did recently do a deal with IBM. Given last month’s partnership to explore financial technology between the two, the choice to work with Hyperledger Fabric makes more sense.
It seems that the Bank of China has been preparing to onboard users to its insurance blockchain solution for some time already. The institution had reportedly accumulated more than four million policies by September.
Although Bank of China’s preparations for its new insurance blockchain initiative have likely been in the works for a while, we are expecting to see many more blockchains launched by other state-owned and private entities in China thanks to the government endorsement. For example, BeInCrypto reported on the recent partnership between Huawei and the People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank) to explore blockchain technology.
Clearly, the endorsement of blockchain technology is a huge boon for both local and international blockchain companies. How the news impacts the cryptocurrency market is an entirely different question, however.
Bitcoin’s Reaction
The Bitcoin price rose from around $7,500 to over $10,000 in a matter of hours following the announcement. Other projects, particularly those based in China, fared similarly. However, since the announcement, there have been some decidedly mixed messages from the government.
Amongst the few potentially exciting developments for cryptocurrency enthusiasts are blockchain learning materials published on by the Chinese government including references to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Meanwhile, the government also appears to be taking a softer stance towards the mining of cryptocurrency. BeInCrypto reported as such earlier today.
However, such developments have been accompanied by warnings on state-media against speculating on virtual currencies. This followed an earlier commentary published by The People’s Daily Newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the government. Whilst acknowledging the benefits of blockchain technology, it urged the public to stay rational when it came to crypto-assets.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
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