Huobi Global, Nervos to build 'Finance Chain' for establishing public enterprise blockchains

Digital asset exchange Huobi Group is jointly working with Nervos, a layered blockchain network to support the decentralized economy, to launch its own public blockchain network focused on decentralized financial (DeFi) services.

As per its press release, the two parties aim to establish the so-called "Huobi Finance Chain" that targets businesses, financial institutions, and exchanges to deploy their own blockchain, tokenize assets, and provide DeFi services.

“From a strategic point of view, decentralized financial services are still in an early stage of development. The market demand is clear, however, and we believe this is a very definite business opportunity,” Leon Li, Houbi Group Founder and CEO, said.

Specifically, Huobi plans to give regulators access to the network and contribute as validators. The platform, which is set to operate under full regulatory compliance, will feature major regulatory tools and protocols including decentralized identifier (DID), Know Your Customer (KYC), and Anti-Money Laundering (AML).

In addition, the joint project will also provide support hosting of lending services, stablecoins, security token offerings, decentralized exchanges, and payment services.

Under the partnership, Nervos will be providing the technology for the new blockchain network. The overall goal is to offer more transparent, inclusive, and efficient financial services.

“More and more assets are being tokenized and moved to the digital world, including both native cryptocurrencies and traditional physical assets. The financial industry is now at an inflection point, and together with Huobi, we’re well positioned to help it modernize its services for the decentralized future,” Kevin Wang, Nervos Co-founder, said.

Huobi Finance Chain is set to open source in the third quarter of 2019, whereas the test launch and mainnet launch are expected to respectively roll out in the first and second quarters of 2020.

Meanwhile, Huobi Group launched its Huobi OTC (over-the-counter) Desk last May to support fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto transactions, supporting US dollars (USD), British pound sterling (GBP), Euros (EUR), and major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and others.

Huobi, along with other major cryptocurrency exchanges, has also recently participated in the V20 Summit that led to a plan to form an association that will provide a “global unified voice” for issues faced by the cryptocurrency sector, including the new guidelines by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).