Alibaba Thinks Blockchain Will Change The World

Alibaba’s (BABA) partnerships, projects, innovations and adoption are proof that it is a frontrunner in embracing advanced technology. Be it artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, quantum computing or blockchain technology, Alibaba is working seamlessly to integrate them in the best possible ways to enhance its offerings.

In 2017, more than 10% of blockchain patent fillings worldwide have come from the Alibaba Group. With Jack Ma’s strong belief that the blockchain technology could change our world "more than people imagine,” the Alibaba group is embracing the blockchain technology across segments. Here’s an overview.

Healthcare & Medical Records

Globally, the embezzlement of medical records is a grave problem. Such confidential and sensitive personal information is used to obtain “medical care, buy drugs, or submit fake billings to Medicare,” according to the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and is called “medical identity theft.”

In the U.S. alone, in 2017 around 477 healthcare breaches were reported affecting a total of 5.579 million patient records. During 2018, Singapore suffered a major cyber-attack with 1.5 million patients’ personal information stolen.

With the intent to improve healthcare in China, last year, AliHealth, the medical arm of Alibaba, and the government of Changzhou city in East China's Jiangsu province rolled out a pilot program securing and sharing of healthcare data using blockchain. The pilot project aimed to integrate medical data sparsely located in different hospitals, to enable the medical records of patients at these hospitals to be shared with doctors at bigger hospitals via blockchain in a secure and fast manner.

This kind of secured information sharing and access by doctors who are authorized to do so can help in better and quicker diagnosis, opinion and treatment of patients.

In March 2018, PUC and AliHealth inked a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on blockchain solutions for the participants of the healthcare industry, including labs, medical institutions, drug supply-chain, and health insurance agencies. They will be working to build an “information sharing platform among medical institutions, regulators, and insurance institutions” to improve coordination and information sharing among these agencies.

Food Fraud

Transparency and traceability in the supply chain can evade horrific incidents like the 2008 melamine-adulterated milk episode in China that made 300,000 babies ill and led to the hospitalization of more than 50,000. The WHO reports that every year, almost 1 in 10 people in the world fall ill after consuming contaminated food. Food fraud is estimated to cost the global industry up to $40 billion a year.

In April 2018, Alibaba formed a consortium called the Food Trust Network with two companies each from Australia and New Zealand to achieve end-to-end supply-chain transparency, boost consumer confidence and establish more trust for cross-border trade. Initial steps towards this initiative were taken back in 2017 by Alibaba in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and other food industry stakeholders.

Based on the work initiated towards transparent supply chains, Tmall.com, Alibaba’s premier business-to-consumer (B2C) retail platform implemented a number of controls and standards using the blockchain technology and QR codes. In August seventeen Hema supermarkets added a food-provenance feature that allows customers to see the journey from the farm to the store across hundreds of items in the store.

In a recent development, the Wuchang Municipal Government has partnered with Ant Financial, Tmall and Rookie Logistics to use blockchain to track and authenticate Wuchang rice.

Remittances

More than 3.6% of the world population comprises of international migrants who live away from families to be able to earn a living. The money they earn is remitted back to families back home and is thus the primary monetary support for billions of people. However, heavy fee levied on such international transfers results in monetary loss to migrants.

In June 2018, AlipayHK and GCash announced the first blockchain-based cross-border digital wallet remittance service to provide a fast, secure, convenient, transparent and low-cost way to transfer money directly between individuals in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

The service is powered by cutting-edge blockchain technology developed by Alipay, the online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group. Philippines is the third biggest remittance market with $33 billion inflows during 2017 according to the World Bank. Making remittances secure and cheaper will go a long way in benefiting communities across countries.

“Ant Financial and Alipay have been exploring the cutting-edge blockchain technology since 2015. Blockchain is revolutionizing the remittance industry, and we look forward to further innovating and expanding the application of the technology in global remittances, together with local wallet partners and other ecosystem partners,” said Eric Jing, Executive Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial.

Overall, Alibaba is looking to integrate blockchain in very pertinent business where it won’t just add a monetary advantage but improve quality, ease of availability, confidence and bring fairness both to the producer and the end chain consumer.