China’s JD.com Launches the Country’s First Blockchain-Based Business License Tool

Zhizhen Blockchain, JD.com’s open blockchain platform, launched China’s first blockchain-based business license with the Administration for Industry and Commerce of Suqian, local media portal Xinhuanet reports. All merchants in Suqian that are in JD.com’s e-commerce network have put their data on the blockchain.

Suqian is also the hometown of Liu Qiangdong, the founder and CEO of JD.com. In August, the city’s Administration for Industry and Commerce signed a memorandum with the e-commerce giant to cooperate on “building the new ecosystem of the Internet economy.” According to the agreement, JD got the support to develop a blockchain-based business license platform, which should enable digital seals and invoices.

The blockchain-powered business license platform comes at the right time, as China recently implemented an e-commerce law that makes e-commerce companies accountable for the fake products traded on their platforms. Thus, e-commerce platform operators are required to rigorously check vendors and service providers’ data and update the database on a regular basis.

Cui Jia, head of JD.com’s business innovation unit, noted that the current business licenses, both the print and digital versions, are used for registering the firm’s static data only. Blockchain-based licenses are able to record each business status update that a company makes.

JD.com started to show interest in blockchain in 2016. In August 2018, the company launched its blockchain open platform to enable firms to better interact with their customers. The platform lets users build and host their own blockchain apps for operations management. The move was part of the company’s Retail as a Service (RaaS) strategy expansion, under which JD.com shares its innovative technologies with third parties. 

Under the same strategy, JD.com announced last week that it was sharing its big data analysis tools and features with offline retailers via its new “Retail as a Service” platform called Zu Chongzhi, named after an ancient mathematician.