Ant Financial explores blockchain technology to record charities

The company started the project based on blockchain technology to record donations made by its more than 400 million users of Alipay, the online payments and investment service. Donors on its “Ant Love” charity platform will be able to track transaction histories and gain a clearer understanding of where their funds go and how they are used.

The project kicks off via a tie-up with the China Social Assistance Foundation, as a number of larger charities consider clambering aboard, according to bloomberg.com. The company calls the initiative a milestone for Ant Love, which has connected users with more than 1,000 charitable organizations and helped with donations of over 600 million yuan as of the end of 2015, the site continues.

With this action, Ant Financial joins companies including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase now experimenting with blockchain. Financial institutions are studying how to set up so-called smart contracts that automatically respond to events. The ledgers can also shore up security by preventing hackers from taking over individual computers to gain access to a network. Beyond charity, Ant Financial is studying other applications for decentralized ledgers.