As Baidu put plans in place for its proposed development of a ‘Super Chain’ network system, the popular Chinese search engine and web Services Company released the Baidu Blockchain White Paper VI.0 through its new Blockchain Lab on Wednesday.
The white paper focused on “the independent development of the ‘Super Chain’ network system” which is expected to support more than 10,000 transactions per second through inter-chain parallel technology and a stereoscopic network. Multi-core parallel calculations are used by the nodes of XuperChain in maximizing the efficiency of the processor and employ sidechains to speed up the network.
Commercializing BaaS and Baidu’s Applications
The paper also proposed the idea of commercializing the Baidu cloud blockchain blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform in addition to six applications based on the Super Chain; Totem, Baidu Association (Huixie), Encyclopedia Online, Treasure Box, Hubert, and Degree Universe.
Baidu Totem is an image right management system or what can be preferably termed as content copyright while Huixie is an education certification platform where Al will create the curriculum vitae (CV) of users. Duyuzhou which is also known as Degree Universe is a space journey game app. The Chest Encyclopedia also known as Baidu Baike is China’s equivalent to Wikipedia and will help in the area of information traceability. The application in May adopted the use of blockchain in tracking amendments to its articles.
As China upped its ante on ICOs back in August, Baidu’s blogging platform Baidu Tieba blocked the “digital currency” and “virtual currency” sub-forums.
Delving further into the white paper, the superchain network is described as a blockchain stereo network made to support parallel and side chains. There is a root chain in the super-chain. The parallel chain, as well as the operating parameters of the entire network supporting data exchange with each chain, is managed by the root chain. The parallel chain which is usually created on the root chain by the developer can either be an open chain or a federated chain.
Operating on what is termed as a ‘pluggable consensus mechanism’ the Super chain within its network enables different parallel chains to select their consensus mechanism. Escalation is also supported through a voting mechanism
The intellectual property of the network is fully owned by Baidu including over 50 patents of XuperChain. The software according to the white paper will nevertheless be an open source.
Affording Third Parties Access on XuperChain
Baidu’s Chief Architect who also serves as director of the Blockchain Lab Tan Bai was quoted by Chinese news outlet Cnchan.com when he expressed optimism about the possibility of third parties choosing to build on the XuperChain network. While adding to this, he said:
“We will further promote the open source and openness of the Xuperchain in the future, and provide the XuperChain as an infrastructure to all developer… We look forward to working with the industry to build a trusted ecosystem of blockchains.”
Baidu, according to the white paper will focus on putting the technology into effective use on food safety, new manufacturing, social networking, new retail, tourism, travel, trading, new retail, supply chain finance, and intellectual property.
Leveraging other Sectors with the Technology
The technology will also be used in rendering modular services to Baidu Super Chain in areas including scenarios in certification, games, digital assets, supply chain finance, digital right, clearing, and settlement.
As a conservation effort in June, the upper Chain protocol of the internet search giant was revealed in the context of reducing energy consumption in cryptocurrency mining operations.
Inroads Into the Chinese Market
A $550 million investment entered the partnership between Alphabet and China’s leading e-commerce company JD.com in June. Alphabet is keen on making inroads into the Chinese market which is currently dominated by Baidu. When it comes to search engine market, Baidu owns a market share of 78% and is also making penetrations with the blockchain technology – a direction which became evident when it presented the XuperChain protocol in June.
The battle of wits between these giant techs will lead to a great deal of good for blockchain technology which is now being adopted across different business sectors.
