Alibaba’s Jack Ma Bets on Blockchain and Bitcoin for a Cashless Society

Although China has been cracking down on Bitcoin for over a year, it has not stopped Chinese business leaders to follow the cryptocurrency. Asian business tycoon and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma recently said that he has a “special attention” on Bitcoin and the blockchain technology. Jack Ma believes that these two will be the key contributors to form a future cashless society.

Jack Ma, who is also the chairman of China-based financial conglomerate Ant Financial, has been studying the fundamental value of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. He says that he is highly impressed by the blockchain technology and considers it to be a powerful innovation.

He was quoted saying: “I pay special attention to cashless society and blockchain technology. Mine and Alibaba’s job is we will move the world into a cashless society. The society can make everybody equal, inclusive to get the money they need, make sure it is sustainable and is transparent. I hate corruption. I don’t have opportunity is ok. But I don’t want somebody through a dirty way take away my opportunity. This is why we want a cashless society.”

With blockchain technology, Ma specifically referred to the decentralized platforms which allows to develop other decentralized applications on top of the being an active source of financial fund transfers.

During the speech Ma also mentioned that he doesn’t hold a negative opinion on Bitcoin or crypto and considers it to be a store of value. However, he also noted that he still needs to understand whether Bitcoin brings sufficient value to the society.

Ma said: “Bitcoin, the thing I want to know is that what value, what things that Bitcoin can bring to the society. But Behind bitcoin, the technology itself, is really very powerful.”

China’s cashless payments market is currently captured by Ant Financial’s Alipay applications, a $60 billion worth entity. Alipay has installed its sophisticated Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals at several shopfronts that allows users with NFC-enabled smartphones to make instant payments. Moreover, the application also allow Alipay employees to instant receive their salaries instead of relying on traditional wired transfers which can cause a delay.

In a word with Financial Times, Ant Financial president Ray Chan said that the company is currently exploring a new product line which targets millennial and next generation users. The says that the youth quickly responds and adapts to new technologies while showing willingness to move over traditional systems.

“When we consider new products, we create them for this era, one in which young people have become the main driving force of our society,” Chan said.