Cryptocurrencies and digital assets are of great interest to numerous companies. In China, Tencent aims to venture deeper into this ecosystem.
It is a remarkable decision for the Chinese internet giant and parent company of WeChat.
Tencent Explores Digital Currencies
Exploring and researching new use cases for cryptocurrencies remains a somewhat controversial approach.
Company employees were notified of this decision via email.
A new cryptocurrency research division is to be created under the company’s overall payment umbrella.
For now, it remains a bit unclear what the future will hold exactly.
Tencent is no stranger to payment innovation, courtesy of its own WeChat Pay solution gaining global traction.
How cryptocurrencies and digital assets fit into that picture, is difficult to predict.
There is also the Chinese government to contend with.
Officials have little love and respect for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Without any additional information to go by, speculation will run wild for some time to come.
It seems unlikely that this new research unit will compete with WeChat Pay in any way.
Further expanding upon that ecosystem is one option worth exploring.
It primarily appears that Tencent is addressing the potential threat posed by Facebook’s Libra.
That currency, while not even close to being launched, could certainly help shape the future of payments globally.
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