Tencent – the major corporation that owns WeChat – is reportedly considering forming a cryptocurrency research team, devoted to improve the growth of blockchain research projects. 

Reported by the iFeng on December 23, the Internet services heavyweight from China has informed its staff, via a statement, revealing that the position for a team leader of the new research group is available.

The research group, should it is officially authorized to work, will primarily invest its efforts in improving the growth of the digital payment sector, via utilizing the features offered by blockchain tech. 

Tencent is yet to make any remarks upon the news. 

Previously, Tencent has forged an alliance with Alrosa – top 1 globally diamond mining firm from Russia, to work on a new e-commerce project, powered by blockchain, which looks to target the demographic of up to a billion users on WeChat – the Tencent-owned China-based social media platform.

The new collaboration on the joint project of the firms was specifically to make the diamond supply chain more transparent, increase the credibility level from customers, along with attracting an increased number of diamond buyers from social media, fully equipped with information about the diamond’s origin, characteristics and ownership history.