Alibaba’s Cloud Branch launches its own NFT service

Alibaba’s Cloud Branch launches its own NFT service

Leading B2B trading platform Alibaba’s subsidiary Alibaba Cloud has launched its own NFT service

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

On Wednesday, Alibaba Cloud announced on Twitter that its service would assist in the rapid and dependable development of NFT marketplaces while avoiding compliance issues. Alibaba Cloud is a web cloud service provider and a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group. Alibaba is the world’s largest online B2B trading platform. However, as of Thursday, the tweet was deleted.

China’s leading cloud service provider intends to assist NFT developers in the development of their NFT marketplaces by providing Alibaba Cloud solutions. The services offered include web hosting, mobile phone message sending, digital marketing and the global content delivery network (CDN) service, which allows data to be distributed globally via Alibaba Cloud’s service nodes. This will assist users in monetising their NFT projects with Alibaba Cloud by providing a full-cycle framework in which one can build an NFT marketplace or set up a collection, market it, and then deliver it to a global user base.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited already has an NFT marketplace where holders can sell tokenized intellectual property licences. It is known as Blockchain Digital Copyright and Asset-Trade. It is accessible via Alibaba’s Auction platform.  

Even though there are many benefits of building on Alibaba Cloud, the company emphasises its ecosystem’s integrity as the most significant benefit to the users. According to its official website, this project will allow the users to have access to everything they need to build and create their own NFT-related products, including database and storage capacities, securing services, a cloud enterprise network, and even a messaging service. When it comes to security, the Web Application Firewall, DDoS Protection, and Security Centre are all essential components.

The platform’s features include an Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ESC) and Auto Scalping. They will contribute to the development of a high-elasticity web server for the NFT marketplace. Static content, such as text or images, can be stored in Object Storage Service (OSS). A database can store non-sensitive data such as platform ID and user alias.

The NFT service provided by Alibaba Cloud operates on a subscription basis. The price of a subscription varies according to the features it offers. However, some of the above-mentioned features are only available as part of a single subscription. The most expensive option among the eight available options, for example, is the previously mentioned DDoS protection, which costs $26,826 per year. 

Alibaba Cloud did not mention whether the blockchain for the NFT marketplaces will support crypto assets or what blockchain they will be based on. Last September, China banned crypto trading. Reportedly, Alibaba has recently distanced itself from several platforms that violated the country’s new crypto regulations. NFTs are not included in China’s strict crypto ban. They cannot be sold for a profit. NFTs were rebranded as digital collectibles by Alibaba to expand their business in the crypto world as well. 

Shashank is the founder of yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash