The Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com announced the launch of their new blockchain technology platform called JD Blockchain Open Platform on Friday. The platform is to help enterprise customers build, host and use their own blockchain applications for a more secure, transparent and convenient operations management.
The platform is built on multiple underlying technologies and can help companies streamline operational procedures such as tracking and tracing the movement of goods and charity donations, authenticity certification, property assessment, transaction settlements, digital copyrights, and enhance productivity.
It is also an expansion of the company’s Retail as a Service (RaaS) strategy, under which JD is opening its advanced technology and infrastructure for other companies and industries. Similar to RaaS, the Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform houses an application store that provides multiple blockchain bottom layers, tools, and software that are developed in-house and by Independent Software Vendors (ISV).
The China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC) is the first partner to use the JD Blockchain open Platform. It uses the platform to deploy a traceable system for e-invoices, or ‘fapiao’, the official receipts in China. The system strengthens the security governance of e-invoices by applying unique blockchain IDs to each document, increasing efficiency and streamlining the accounting process.
“JD Blockchain Open Platform is a culmination of the expertise and experience in blockchain technology that we initially developed for our own operations, to provide more visibility to consumers,” said Jian Pei, Head of Big Data and Smart Supply Chain at JD.com. “As we continue to open our technology and infrastructure up to other companies, we are pleased to have CIPC as our first blockchain platform customer.”
“JD is an innovator in its field and we are confident its blockchain e-invoice system will create greater efficiency in our operations,” said Yanhong Pan, Vice President and CFO of CPIC. “Blockchain technology is transforming the way companies do business, and we are pleased to have found a great partner in JD to guide and help us along the way.”
Last year, JD introduced its blockchain tracing platform and since then, the company has implemented blockchain tracing for more than 400 brands and 11,000 SKU’s on JD.com.
You can learn more about the platform on the official blog post.