One of China’s biggest internet companies has joined forces with one of its leading universities to start a new blockchain research centre.
Tsinghua University launched the Research Center for Blockchain at its Fintech Institute over the weekend.
The new research institute was launched with help of donations from groups including Tencent Holdings and venture capital company Gaorong Capital.
The new centre will focus upon the development of blockchain technology and industry applications, according to an announcement made by Gaorong Capital via its official WeChat account.
A key factor behind the launch of the new research centre is the desire to capitalise upon the the transformation of the financial sector by the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains and cloud computing.
Tencent has already made forays into the new technology with the launch of its own blockchain research team in 2015, which has since been incorporated into the company’s payments infrastructure platform and financial applications group.
The company is exploring the use of the technology for supply chain financing, launching the Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) open platform for the provision of third party payment solutions.
Tencent has also teamed up with local authorities in Guangxi province to use blockchains to safeguard medical prescription information and prevent tampering.
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