Baidu launches open network platform, blockchain moves towards "scale replication" into consensus among big companies

On January 6, Baidu Super Chain held an online press conference and announced the "open network" of its 2020 product. It is reported that the superchain open network is a basic blockchain service network built on Baidu's self-developed open source technology. It is composed of super alliance nodes distributed throughout the country and meets Chinese standards. It provides users with an environment for rapid deployment and operation of blockchain applications. , And the ability to pay elastically for computing and storage.

Why launch an open network product?

Superchain team members said that there are two main reasons:

First, this is the pain point of the industry. In May last year, Baidu Super Chain officially open-sourced the underlying technology of the blockchain that was independently developed. As of now, tens of thousands of developers have used Baidu's technology. When providing technical support for developers, we found that blockchain research and development costs are high, barriers to entry are high, and resources are invested.

Even with the autonomous and controllable underlying technology, most enterprises and individuals still do not have the ability to successfully build their own alliance chains and private chains. Therefore, we have begun to develop an open network product.

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Second, this is an industry need. A speech by General Secretary Xi put the chain into the fast lane of development. At the end of 2019, the government and traditional industries are exploring and testing how to integrate with the blockchain, and various industries have created leading benchmark cases.

In 2020, the industrial blockchain will surely move from a "benchmark case" to a "scaled replication" and usher in an explosion. Everything is on the chain and the entire people are on the chain. The application of blockchain technology needs to be safe, controllable, and easy to use Basic network facilities to undertake.

Which users are there and how is it different from BaaS?

The Superchain team stated: "The open network is open to global users. From developers to enterprise customers, it can meet the simple to complex application operations, whether it is creating accounts individually, deploying contracts, or simply registering on the chain. Developers and enterprises Dapps can be built around various scenarios such as certificate storage, traceability, games, sweepstakes, points, etc. "

For example, signing an electronic contract is a common scenario in people's daily life. Developers can develop blockchain electronic contract signing products quickly and at low cost based on the open network. Data is stored in the open network to prevent tampering, traceability, and small programs. Is the traffic inlet.

From the description, Open Network and BaaS platforms seem a bit similar. The same thing is that enterprises use the open network and BaaS platform without the need to build their own chains to use blockchain technology to select a variety of contract templates and functional components suitable for business.

The difference lies in three points: First, the underlying blockchain technology, the open platform is likely to be built based on the super chain, and the BaaS platform is more open. It also provides multiple Ethereum, super ledger, Cosmos, Quorum, XuperChain and other Choice; Second, operation and maintenance nodes. The nodes of the open platform are composed of super alliance nodes distributed throughout the country and open to the community. The nodes of the BaaS cloud service are usually composed of cloud service providers. The second is what the superchain team emphasizes. Expenses are said to be "more flexible and cost-effective, and pay based on actual storage and computing resource usage, and you can use it for a penny."

The Baidu Superchain team exemplified: "Taking the demand of 3 nodes as an example, a medium-sized Dapp product with a daily transaction execution volume of 10,000 times, using an open network to deploy an application costs about 7,000 yuan a year. If you purchase cloud services, It needs at least 50,000 yuan. "

But I have a little doubt. Baidu has two teams involved in the blockchain, namely Baidu Labs and Baidu Smart Cloud. The former focuses on the underlying public chain technology, while the latter focuses on BaaS services. The "open network" launched by the superchain this time seems to be benchmarking with its own BaaS platform. I wonder if it will cause internal competition?

Blockchain "scale replication" has become a consensus among big manufacturers

Baidu released the "Baidu Blockchain White Paper V1.0" in September 2018, and the superchain was officially open sourced in May 2019. At present, there are typical cases in many livelihood scenarios, such as: Chongqing electronic prescription circulation platform, breaking medical information islands, and achieving electronic prescription compliance, safe, and efficient circulation; government service platform, one-chain processing, second-second approval; Beijing The internet court platform, docking with the judicial system, saying goodbye to tedious litigation procedures; and a multi-technology integration traceability platform that allows Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs to be traced credibly from the place of origin to the purchase.

In fact, the new product released by Baidu this time is not surprising. Xiao Wei, the boss of the superchain team and the person in charge of Baidu Labs, pointed out in June 2018: "Blockchain must have a unique operating system. Based on this system, developers can develop like mobile apps. Blockchain applications. "Because of this, Baidu is also the only team in a large factory to develop a" public chain. " The "Open Network" also hopes that developers and enterprises will build a Dapp ecosystem on it.

Ant Financial has had similar moves before. On November 8, Li Jieli, the senior director of Ant Financial, announced at the "2019 World Blockchain Conference • Wuzhen" hosted by Babbitt that the alliance chain will be officially launched three months later, and the public beta will begin today. He said: "Blockchain requires multiple parties to participate, and the Ant Open Alliance Chain will be aimed at global developers and institutional customers, lowering the threshold for building a chain to support the rapid development of small and medium-sized enterprises." In addition, Ant Financial will also gradually open services. Market and launch Daap publishing platform.

Three days ago, Alibaba Dharma Institute released ten major technology trends in 2020, including "scale production-level blockchain applications will enter the public." Today, the superchain group put forward similar conclusions: "The air has come, the blockchain infrastructure is a must for the industrial blockchain", "Let the blockchain become the hydropower coal of the future society", and "the industrial blockchain will From Benchmarking Case to Large-scale Copying ".

Blockchain technology has attracted many large manufacturers to compete for its potential and space for development. However, we found that both in terms of technology and application, all actions are highly consistent, and they have formed homogeneous competition in the blue ocean market. This reflects: On the one hand, the blockchain is still in the pioneering period of infrastructure construction, and many enterprises simply do not have the ability to build and use this technology. On the other hand, in order for the blockchain to become industrialized, it is not enough to rely on large factories to provide a few cases. It requires the combination of practical experience from various industries to create a real-world large-scale landing scene for the blockchain.

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