Huobi ChainHuobi Group has launched its public testnet, Huobi Chain. This is an open-source public blockchain designed to provide a global, blockchain-based, digital asset financial infrastructure.

DeFi has become one of the most promising applications of blockchain technology but its future requires both sides—regulators and enterprises—to work together to establish the standards and guidelines of the new decentralized economy,” said Ciara Sun, VP of Global Business at Huobi Group.

With Huobi Chain, we want to provide the decentralized framework that facilitates industry-wide collaboration, which is critical to the widespread adoption of DeFi.”

Ciara Sun, VP of Global Business at Huobi Group
Ciara Sun, VP of Global Business at Huobi Group

The Huobi Chain DeFi dimension

The high-performance decentralized finance (DeFi) chain is now live for beta testing. Created in partnership with technical development partner Nervos, Huobi Chain provides a regulator-friendly blockchain framework for financial organizations to deploy DeFi services and applications, including:

  • own blockchains
  • tokenised assets
  • payments and identity verification
  • lending services
  • decentralised exchanges.

To encourage collaboration between regulatory agencies and the private financial sector, Huobi Chain is adopting a flexible governance model. Based on a variation of the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm, the design enables Huobi Chain to support both regulators and enterprises on the blockchain. For example, a feature like regulatory nodes allows regulators to contribute to the network as validators.

In parallel, industry-standard identity protocols – like Know Your Customer (KYC) verification – ensures the network meets Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements. Huobi Chain utilises a Decentralized Identifier (DID) system to provide verifiable, decentralised digital identities on its network. The company argues that this makes cross-border compliance and regulation achievable at scale.

Huobi Chain and a finance-specific framework

Huobi built Huobi Chain for the financial services industry. This is why it is open-source – to provide the flexibility needed for equivalently open financial markets. The Huobi Chain has a customisable DeFi service protocol. This enables users and third-party developers to custom-build financial applications to their specific needs and use cases.

Huobi Chain, based on a high-performance architecture, aims to support high-volume transactions critical to the financial services industry. It possesses features like:

  • cross-chain interoperability
  • multi-asset support
  • smart contract capabilities
  • multi-and-sidechain architectures.

Cumulatively, Huobi wants banks and financial institutions to have access to with a flexible, globally scalable framework. For instance, the Huobi Chain’s proprietary asset management capabilities support a wide variety of on-chain and cross-chain asset management services across popular digital assets like:

  • BTC and ETH
  • Huobi-launched assets, such as HT, HBTC and HUSD.

Practical aspects

Leading up to the network’s mainnet launch later this year, Huobi will seek to leverage its domain expertise in blockchain and financial technology. Its intention is exploration of new opportunities which can bolster the financial market infrastructure of Huobi Chain. Current Huobi priorities include:

  • expanding support for third-party developers and various asset classes
  • developing a more robust on-chain framework for compliance and regulation.

Huobi Token (HT) is the native ecosystem token of digital asset exchange Huobi Global. This will become Huobi Chain’s sole utility token. HT will play a specific role in its ecosystem.

Ms Sun also said: “By providing the infrastructure to make financial services more transparent, inclusive, and efficient, we want to help create a more equitable economy where wealth is accessible to all“.

Enterprise Times: what does this mean

Consisting of numerous upstream and downstream enterprises, Huobi Group claims to be a leading global blockchain company. Established by Leon Li in 2013, the company’s Huobi Global exchange turnover exceeds US$3T via provision of cryptocurrency trading and asset management services in 170+ countries.

As a public blockchain with on-chain governance and regulatory framework, Huobi believes it offers innovative features which push the boundaries of blockchain. Developed to be interoperable – with a wide variety of centralised and decentralised networks – Huobi Chain has breadth, supporting:

  • user-deployed smart contracts
  • third-party side-chains
  • multiple languages (the testnet currently supports smart contracts written in C but will support other programming languages to expand its ecosystem).

Huobi has major aspirations, especially in the DeFi arena. The big question for enterprises is whether Huobi Chain can assume the heights of Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum/Quorum, R3 Corda, Digital Asset, MultiChain and Kadena.

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Charles Brett is a business/technology analyst consultant. His specialist areas include enterprise software, blockchain and enterprise mobility tech (including metering). Specific industry sectors of interest and experience include finance (especially systems supporting wholesale finance), telecommunications and energy. Charles has spoken at multiple industry conferences, has written for numerous publications (including the London Times and the Financial Times). He was the General Chair of the bi-annual High Performance Systems Workshop, 2005. In addition he is an author and novelist. His Technology books include: Making the Most of Mobility Vol I (eBook, 2012); Explaining iTunes, iPhones and iPads for Windows Users (eBook, 2011); 5 Axes of Business Application Integration (2004). His published novels, in the Corruption Series, include: The HolyPhone Confessional Crisis, Corruption’s Price: A Spanish Deceit and Virginity Despoiled. The fourth in The Corruption Series - Resurrection - has is now available. Charles has a B.A. and M.A in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He has lived or worked in Italy, Abu Dhabi, South Africa, California and New York, Spain, Israel, Estonia and Cyprus.

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