Tencent Holdings, the Chinese conglomerate, has teamed up with ShareRing, the blockchain company, to launch a new digital identification system to streamline international travel amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has been reported by South China Morning Post that ShareRing will combine its distributed ledger technology with Tencent’s cloud services to create a blockchain-based digital identity management platform.
However, ShareRing will use Tencent Cloud’s optical character recognition and facial recognition technology to help improve its “self-sovereign identity app.” In its current form, the app can be used to book flights, hotel reservations, car rentals, and a variety of other services.
The report said that Tencent and ShareRing said the aim of this partnership is to help Southeast Asian countries “reopen their borders to tourism and recover from the economic blow” of COVID-19.
What role will blockchain technology play in digital identity? https://t.co/1iGA5kgzKf — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) November 17, 2020
Likewise, the travel and tourism industry has been ravaged by global lockdowns, with S&P Global Ratings forecasting a 60% to 70% drop in global air traffic this year.
Thus, the two companies indicated that the platform has already received interest from various government agencies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes 10 member states.
Source: Cointelegraph