Crypto exchange Huobi plans its first decentralized blockchain, offers millions for development

World’s third largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Huobi announced that it is planning and considering building its own blockchain which would be its first public and decentralized one. Huobi will fund it with 30 million Huobi Tokens which would be worth about USD 174 million. This blockchain would be known as called Huobi Chain.

Decentralizing Huobi Exchange

Huobi said that after its project of public blockchain is complete it will move its cryptocurrency operations to the platform. This would mean that Huobi Exchange trading would move from centralized servers onto a distributed ledge format. The platform would also be used for exchanges with other offerings such as Token Fundraising events (ICO’s) and securitization.

Leon Li Lin, CEO,and founder of Huobi was quoted saying “We firmly believe in a decentralized future and the main goal of the Huobi Chain project is to transform a centralized corporation to a decentralized one that’s run by the community.” Our dream is for Huobi to run on the public blockchain and become a truly decentralized autonomous organization.”

Back in March, Huobi’s main rival, Binance said it was also planning to move towards a decentralized system of operations.

This would not be easy as by not being based in one singular physical location, decentralized exchanges would be questionable on how financial authorities can regulate them. Although the crypto industry believes this is where the future lies.

Development and Implementation would holdkey

To fulfill its plans Huobi is seeking external assistance, it is believed to have launched a program, designed to invite blockchain developers to build the new platform. Chen Guang, a director at company’s ecosystem development arm said that the exchange will allocate a part of its annual revenue to the pool- the exact percentage is still to be disclosed.  The exact timelines of the project are considered to be 18 months and will be divided into 8 phases with each being a contest for developers to participate and compete for tokens. To guide the process, the company will first establish a committee in the next two to three weeks that will craft a policy and self-regulatory framework for the competition.

If this plan works out, Huobi will set as an example for the world exchanges to decentralize. One will have to wait 18 months to check its success. Is decentralization of exchanges actually possible and can work seamlessly? DO let us know your views on the same