Patenting activity related to blockchain decreased in the first quarter of this year. Overall, blockchain patents related to the banking and finance sector decreased by 42%. However, according to analysis of patent activity by GlobalData, Ant Group filed the most blockchain patents, filing 12 patents in Q1 of 2023.
The top five companies accounted for 22% of patenting activity. Ant Group filed the most blockchain patents within the banking & payments industry in Q1 2023. The company filed 12 blockchain-related patents in the quarter, compared with 46 in the previous quarter.
AntChain, a subsidiary of Ant Group, the operator of China’s largest wallet payment app Alipay, made a surprising move last month by open-sourcing its blockchain interoperability solution, AntChain Bridge.
This decision marks a departure from AntChain’s usual approach, as its core permissioned blockchain has remained proprietary. In contrast, many other Chinese blockchains, such as FISCO BCOS associated with Huawei and Tencent, Xuperchain from Baidu, and JD Chain from JD.com, are open source.
AntChain Bridge’s source code has been made available on GitHub, allowing interoperability with Ethereum-compatible chains through the Solidity smart contract language. The solution also aligns with the recently released international standard for cross-chain transactions set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
This move by AntChain reflects the recognition that the blockchain space is evolving into a multichain environment, and the company cannot afford to isolate itself. AntChain has previously gained attention with its technology, notably through Trusple, a small business trade finance solution that has been adopted by several international banks.
Embracing cross-chain technology and contributing to international standards
In addition to open-sourcing AntChain Bridge, the company announced other initiatives. AntChain OpenLab will conduct research on blockchain protocols and privacy-preserving computing, with the aim of contributing to an open, secure, and highly efficient Web3 technology ecosystem.
They are working with Kenanga Investment Bank on Malaysia’s first “SuperApp,” which will include crypto trading, e-wallets and portfolio management.
According to Kenanga’s website, the bank has agreed to work with Ant Group, an affiliate of e-commerce company Alibaba (BABA), to leverage the Chinese company’s mobile development platform, mPaaS, for the app.
Kenanga was founded in 1973 and is Malaysia’s largest independent investment bank. It has more than 500,000 customers. The nation was tipped to become Asia’s crypto hub earlier this year.
It is still undergoing a restructuring after regulators blocked its initial public offering in 2020, unveiled a blockchain storage engine late last year as the fintech giant signals a pivot towards hard tech.
Furthermore, the Ant Group Digital Technologies unit unveiled Letus, or Log-structured Efficient Trusted Universal Storage, at the Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, describing it as a way to lower the storage costs of blockchain networks.
