Alibaba Cloud – the arm of Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba Group – is doubling down its efforts to accelerate the growth of a more inclusive and secure modern internet powered by blockchain technology. To that extent, the cloud giant announced a partnership with a layer one blockchain protocol – Elastos – to build and deploy next-generation solutions.

The latest move is touted as an important step in Alibaba Cloud’s broader Web3 strategy, which includes cloud-native blockchain development, over two decades of serverless services, private key as well as smart contract management tools.

Focus on Decentralized Identifiers and More

According to the official press release shared with CryptoPotato, the partnership will entail developing decentralized web communities by supporting ecosystem projects and organizing hackathons and developer education programs.

This includes a focus on Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) that have gained traction over the last couple of years following significant investment by major players such as the Ethereum Foundation, Polygon ID, Disco, SpruceID, Iden3, Ceramic, etc. A recent study by Markets and Markets shows that the global decentralized identity market value is estimated to hit $6.8 billion by 2027.

Elastos, for one, highlighted the inefficiencies of traditional digital identity systems that are often stored on centralized platforms forcing users to rely on third-party entities, thereby exposing critical details to data breaches, identity theft, and loss of privacy.

The integration is expected to enable Alibaba Cloud to offer its 2.3 million customers one-click deployment solutions as well as a backend AppStore with the help of Elastos’ open-source Web3 technologies, such as decentralized identity, storage, and peer-to-peer communications solutions. At the same time, Elastos devs will be able to leverage Alibaba.

Meanwhile, the development of “one-click tools” is yet another crucial aspect that the two entities will work on to enable users to easily launch validator nodes on Elastos’ blockchain platform. Cloud’s node-as-a-service offering.

Michel Cui, Head of Web3 Business at Alibaba Cloud, emphasized the need to create new web experiences that give users the power to manage their data and privacy. He further added,

“Elastos has an impressive Web3 tech stack and through this strategic partnership, it will be easier for Alibaba Cloud customers to expand their products and services in the decentralized web while ensuring the security and flexibility of their data that they’ve come to expect from Alibaba Cloud solutions.”

Alibaba Cloud’s Web3 Tryst

The Elastos partnership comes a month after Alibaba Cloud signed a memorandum of understanding with Mysten Labs, the initial developer of the Sui layer 1 blockchain for developing sustainable Web3 ecosystems and exploring potential opportunities in the e-commerce and payment sectors among other offerings.

Alibaba Cloud also introduced its Blockchain Node Service to provide Web3 devs with scalable, efficient, and secure infrastructure in December last year. Prior to that, the cloud tech giant had rolled out new services for NFT and metaverse platforms based outside of mainland China.