On January 7, 2018, QTUM announced via twitter a partnership with 360 Financial, a subsidiary of the Chinese internet and cyber-security giant: Qihoo 360.
This announcement caused a flurry of activity both in the markets and on the community forums, and for good reason.
Qtum Partnership with 360 Financial
For those unfamiliar with Qihoo 360, they were founded in 2005 and are one of China’s largest internet companies, specializing in mobile and internet browser security software. They are the creators of the 360 Browser, one of China’s most popular web browsers. In addition, they operate 360 Search, China’s third most popular search engine, which currently makes up around 10% of all search queries in China.
Most of their business comes through mobile and internet browser security software. In 2015, they reported having 523 million active PC security software users and 868 million mobile smartphone security users. The company privatized and delisted from the NYSE in 2016, so no updated figures have been publicly released since 2015.
Co-founder of Qtum, Patrick Dai, went into a little more detail about the partnership on Qtum’s official telegram channel.
He stated that 360 Financial has over 900 million users and a $60 billion market cap, and that Qtum is cooperating with them to build China’s blockchain ecosystem. The purpose is to help make “Qtum [become] the most influential blockchain Platform in the world”.
He went on further to say that this is the first of five big partnerships in the pipeline for Qtum, but did not reveal any additional details as to what these partnerships are or what the partnership with Qihoo 360 will looks like.
2nd Partnership Announcement: Qtum and Baofeng Bokocloud
Only a few days later, Qtum officially announced on their blog that they are also partnering with Baofeng Bokocloud (this same announcement had been made on Baofeng’s website the week prior).
Baofeng is a huge media company in China, with Baofeng’s media player app being one of China’s most popular video and music streaming services with over 200 million active users.
The Qtum announcement stated that Baofeng has “realized the enormous potential of a dynamic integration between blockchain technology and the traditional video industry” and will be working with Qtum’s platform to make the first BCN (blockchain consensus network) service in the world.
Using Qtum’s platform, Baofeng plans to implement new technologies to better serve their customers such as updated payments and video distribution technologies, in addition to added features like updated copyright protection systems.
But perhaps even more exciting is that in the future Baofeng plans on providing Qtum with “full node support”. What this actually means is that they plan to add over 50,000 nodes to Qtum’s network, which will in turn add additional security and stability to the network and will help lay the framework for network expansion in the future. For comparison, Bitcoin currently only has around 10,000 nodes and Ethereum about 30,000 nodes.
Regarding the partnership with Baofeng, Qtum co-founder Patrick Dai stated:
Baofeng’s huge user base is a treasure for us. We are looking forward to having more developers to share their ideas and contribute their code to our platform, and dedicate themselves to the development of blockchain technology.
A Bright Future Ahead
These announcements definitely give Qtum fans a reason to be excited. Qtum has put in the time to build their platform by laying a solid foundation. Now, they are looking to scale. It is clear that Dai and the Qtum team have been busy not only building a solid technology, but also networking and making strategic partnerships.
Their efforts are bearing fruit. The partnership with Baofeng shows that they are learning from Ethereum and Bitcoin’s mistakes. They are building their platform with scalability and network stability in mind. This will save them the headache of scrambling to keep up with demand further down the line. Moreover, working with 360 Financial to set up a R&D laboratory will give Qtum access to developers and additional resources which they couldn’t have obtained their own.
With partnerships like these and more soon to come, the future looks bright for Qtum indeed.
For further reading see: “What is Qtum” and “Qtum: Full Steam Ahead in 2018”.
