Huobi’s ‘Regulator-Friendly’ Blockchain Goes Open Source

Huobi Chain, the regulator-facing public blockchain of exchange Huobi Group, is now open source and publicly available to all developers on GitHub, the firm said Tuesday.

Nervos, a blockchain development startup, is providing part of the technical infrastructure for the project.

The firms are developing pluggable components for the network that could enable regulators to supervise contract deployments, asset holdings and transfers, as well as the enforcement of anti money laundering regulations, Bo Wang, a Nervos researcher, told CoinDesk.

The components will also allow financial institutions, such as banks and regulatory agencies, to freeze assets and accounts in case of emergencies via sidechains, according to Wang.

“Supervision nodes will enable regulators to independently run and maintain nodes, extract data, and participate in the ecosystem’s supervision,” he said, noting Huobi Chain will also provide tools for pre-deployment audits and continuous tracking.

Huobi Chain unveiled the public blockchain in July in partnership with blockchain startup Nervos. It can be used for financial services and applications, including lending, debit services, stablecoins, security token offerings, exchanges and payment services, the company said.

The firm has touted the network as the first financial public chain to support nodes that let regulators contribute to the network as validators.

Huobi Group founder and CEO Leon Li said in today’s announcement: “If major banks and financial institutions are to fully embrace and adopt permissionless blockchain technology, we need to create a safe and secure environment that makes it easier for them to transition their products and services to the blockchain.”

Nervos is also working with financial giant China Merchants Bank to develop its decentralized finance applications. The blockchain firm completed its $72 million token sale last week, and will launch its Lina mainnet on Nov. 16.

Huobi image via CoinDesk archives