Yesterday EY announced it would deploy its blockchain solutions on China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN). The BSN is trying to create the internet of blockchains and has two parts, one in China that only supports permissioned blockchains and a global version that also includes public blockchains. Additionally, EY will integrate some of its solutions with the Chinese FISCO BCOS blockchain framework.
EY plans to deploy its EY OpsChain blockchain platform, including procurement and traceability functions. The plan is to deploy initially on the permissioned Chinese BSN network and later on the international network when a controlled access version of public Ethereum is available.
It will also deploy its EY Blockchain Analyzer.
To date, EY has exclusively worked with Ethereum blockchain technology. But it will now integrate with the homegrown FISCO BCOS blockchain. This was the very first blockchain to go live on the BSN Chinese network and was developed by the Financial Blockchain Shenzhen Consortium (FISCO). Founding alliance members include Tencent, associate WeBank and Huawei. And now EY is joining the consortium.
“China is one of the largest markets for blockchain technology in the world, and, while EY teams have been operating there for several years, this is the EY organization’s first big step in deploying the EY blockchain platform in a scalable manner,” said Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain Leader.
“By offering both FISCO BCOS and Ethereum, EY professionals will serve clients within China and across the Asia-Pacific region and connect those users to the global blockchain.”
While not mentioned in the announcement, in some ways, BSN is consistent with Brody’s vision of blockchain. He believes that blockchains should be open to all and avoid creating new kinds of siloed data and processes. While EY supports private blockchains, Brody is very much a proponent of public blockchains.
The Chinese BSN is designed to be low cost, open, accessible and encourages interoperability between private networks. However, it is not public because it requires user identification and does not support cryptocurrencies because they are not endorsed in China.
