Wanxiang Group partners with PlatOn Blockchain for Smart City Project

Chinese automotive component manufacturer Wanxiang has partnered with global privacy-preserving computing network PlatON to co-develop the data infrastructure for China’s largest smart city project in Hangzhou, slated for completion by 2025.

Under the deal, Wanxiang has pledged to invest US$29 billion over the course of the next decade to support the technological and infrastructural development in what the company says is envisaged to become China’s largest, most interconnected, blockchain-powered smart city.

Wanxiang says the PlatON blockchain-based network, selected for its scalability and privacy, will form the technological backbone of the city.

First announced in 2015, the Wanxiang Innova City will be built on 8.3 square kilometres on a premium riverfront site in Hangzhou, and will feature a “world class” International Research and Innovation Park, vast digital and ecological urban space, and Wanxiang’s advanced technology and manufacturing facilities for renewable energies and electric vehicles.

Built from scratch, the infrastructural blueprint of the smart city will use PlatON’s blockchain-based solution to track, transfer, and secure critical data such as resident identification cards and smart devices.

PlatON’s will also be used blockchain solution to monitor driving behavioral data to train auto-driving systems, as well as to record and monitor electric vehicle life cycles, including their batteries to manage ecological waste efficiently, among other use cases.

Ada Xiao, chief strategy officer at PlatON, said: “As we work to realise a fully digitalised future, Wanxiang Smart City will come to set a global standard in the future of emerging technologies and how they will shape and govern the way we live, work, and play.

“With our use of Multi-Party Computation and other privacy-preserving technologies, we can ensure the privacy of sensitive data including digital identities of residents, smart equipment, and personal devices, as they interact with one another on a shared ledger. PlatON is proud to be driving this future-defining initiative and to lend its cloud-based blockchain solution to build Wanxiang Smart City.”

Through the use of PlatON’s next-generation computing network and public infrastructure, corporations and individuals in Wanxiang Smart City can connect different services for more efficient tracking of data, provide seamless transactions, and utilise public services transparently.

Once completed in 2025, 90,000 citizens are expected to live and work in Wanxiang City.