The Huobi Group has announced that is has joined the Blockchain-Based Services Network (BSN) Development Alliance through its Chinese Branch. This official confirmation was made during the BSN launch on December 1st in Hangzhou of Southern China.
The BSN is purposely created to lead the nation’s efforts in pursuing new opportunities within the blockchain space. The Alliance is led by the State Information Center (SIC), an organisation that has strong ties to the National Development and Research Commission, China’s highest central planning agency. Huobi becomes the latest entrant to the state-backed blockchain alliance that already includes, China Mobile, China UnionPay, China Merchants Bank International, and Weizhong Bank. The BSN is tasked with developing a blockchain infrastructure services platform that developers, institutions, businesses, and networks can build on. This clear cut purpose was initially announced in October by Wenchao Shi, president of China UnionPay stating that
When developing an app, people would think about Android and IOS systems. We hope BSN would be the first thing that people would think whenever they want to develop their own blockchain technologies.
The network will be rolled out initially across 54 cities across China, Hong Kong and Singapore in diverse projects.
Yuming Yuan, the CEO of Huobi China expressed gratitude upon the company’s induction into the Alliance. He further announced that the alliance is also expected to educate people about blockchain technology and promote its adoption across China through collaborative efforts.
This latest development by Huobi follows in its concerted efforts to pivot its business away from crypto trading. The Company has adopted various initiatives to position itself as a blockchain services provider following the Chinese government’s crackdown on crypto exchanges in 2017. The company adopted a global expansion strategy post-crackdown by moving its crypto trading business to Singapore, Japan and South Korea.
Huobi has also warmed up to the Chinese Government since then resulting in a good relationship. So much so that the company even opened a branch for the Communist Party in its Beijing subsidiary in November 2018. Huobi will therefore look to leverage this relationship and its BSN membership to test various projects in an open space.
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