Together with its partners, AntChain unveiled a series of new Web3 initiatives, including an open-source project featuring its industry-leading cross-chain technology and AntChain OpenLab, to support Web3 developer community at the 2023 Ant Group Digital Technologies Developer Conference.
Web3 is commonly known as a more secure and blockchain-based Internet comparing to the current version (Web 2.0). Cross-chain technology is a key component of Web3 to make it an interconnected and open ecosystem. At the conference, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) released the first international standard for cross-chain technology, while AntChain Bridge, a high-security heterogeneous cross-chain protocol developed with this standard, opened its source codes to the developer community. This is the first time that AntChain open-sourced its fundamental technologies.
“Cross-chain technology connects different blockchains and facilitates cross-chain value circulation. The new standard brings a unified communication protocol, and significantly reduces the cost of interconnection of blockchains, ” said Li Ming, Chairman of the IEEE Computer Society Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology Standards Committee.
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“Cross-chain technology is essential to unlocking the full potential of Web3. By connecting different blockchains and use cases across industries with the technology, we will create a more interconnected and open ecosystem that allows for large-scale transferring of digital assets, ” noted Yan Ying, Technical Director of AntChain. “After several years of exploration, we are glad to share our cross-chain technology and technical know-how with the Web3 community through this open-source project. We hope the project can help facilitate the development of the Web3 community and make the technology more inclusive.”
In 2019, AntChain launched its cross-chain product ODATS (Open Data Access Trusted Service). Over the past years, ODATS has been adapted and validated in various use cases including financial services and logistics.
Also at the conference, AntChain announced the establishment of AntChain OpenLab, which focuses on the research of technologies including blockchain protocols, security and compliance, private-preserving computing and trusted hardware solutions together with Web3 researchers and developers. AntChain OpenLab aims to contribute to an open, secure and highly-efficient Web3 technology ecosystem.
In the meantime, multiple node operators, including Shanghai Data Exchange, Zhejiang Cultural Industry Investment Group and AntChain, co-launched Web3 OpenChain, a suite of Web3 development platform, services and toolkits. Upgraded from AntChain OpenChain, launched in 2020, Web3 OpenChain offers full-stack technology services for Web3 development and is compatible with other major protocols such as Ethereum.
Geoff Jiang, President of Digital Technologies Business at Ant Group, said, “Industrial Web3 and value network are the cornerstones of tomorrow’s Internet. Innovations including cross-chain technology based on international standards will enable the interconnection of different blockchains, help us move from an information network to a value network, and support the development of the digital economy.”
Beyond Web3 initiatives, China Unicom Digital Technology (CUDT) and UNISOC also worked with AntChain to launch a trusted baseband chip customized for the electric vehicle industry. With highly-integrated baseband chip design from UNISOC, customized communication capabilities from CUDT, and AntChain’s expertise on blockchain and IoT technologies, this new chip securely connects external data with blockchain environments at hardware level to achieve end-to-end security and trustworthiness.
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