NEM Malaysia Opens Largest Blockchain Centre in Asia

NEM Malaysia has announced the opening of the NEM Blockchain Centre (NBC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which serves as a learning centre, incubator and accelerator for organisations in Asia keen to explore blockchain technology and its applications in multiple industries.

With almost 11,000-square-feet of space, the NBC is the largest of its kind in the region that is fully operated by a blockchain technology organisation. NBC will house the NEM Blockchain Innovation Lab, a headquarters for research and development as well as regional support for organisations interested in using the NEM platform within their IT infrastructures. It also serves as a co-working space, with several Malaysian companies already using its services and facilities for blockchain-related learning and knowledge-sharing events.

 “The NEM Blockchain Centre serves to educate and support organisations around Asia with an interest in blockchain technology and its applications,” said Stephen Chia, Council Member and Regional Head, Southeast Asia, NEM.io Foundation, and Country Lead for NEM Malaysia. “We have already kick-started initiatives and programmes with local and regional companies keen on exploring how to improve transparency, prevent fraud and establish trust in their business through adoption of blockchain innovations. Blockchain will certainly impact how organisations in every industry manage their information and data to benefit their customers or end-users.”

NEM Malaysia was set up by the NEM Foundation, a non-profit organisation incorporated in Singapore, dedicated to promoting the development and adoption of the NEM blockchain solution around the world. With the NBC, software developers, business users, startups, exchanges, and the blockchain community are expected to test and develop use cases (how blockchain technology can be used for a specific purpose) of the NEM blockchain technology platform.

The NBC enables organisations to explore how blockchain technology can help improve data transactions by enhancing speed and security at a lower cost than other current technology platforms. Blockchain is gaining global traction in diverse industries including financial services, insurance, education, retail, telecommunications and logistics. Among its applications are automating accounting, medical and scientific records, international remittance, securities trading customer relationship management, notarisations and many more.

The NEM blockchain is already being adopted in a number of industries and services in Asia and around the world, including Appsolutely Inc., the largest rewards and loyalty programme company in the Philippines; a point-of-sale terminal for cryptocurrency for the retail industry (Pundi X) in Indonesia; and backend payment and mobile settlement solutions by Dragonfly Fintech Pte. Ltd., Singapore.

 Malaysia: Base of operations for Asia

With the opening of NBC, NEM Malaysia serves as the headquarters for regional operations for NEM in Asia (excluding China and ANZ). The team continues to pursue strategic alliances to expand NEM’s reach, secure deeper collaboration, and develop more blockchain hubs. Malaysian organisations can leverage the NEM network and technology to develop blockchain solutions for the Malaysian economy while having access to training events, service providers and technical support.

Partners and customers include member companies under the Internet Alliance. “The Internet Alliance and its members look forward to continuing our collaboration with NEM Malaysia in building awareness and educating companies about Blockchain,” said Chan Kee Siak, President of the Internet Alliance Malaysia, and Founder and CEO of ‎Exabytes Group, a global, multiple award-winning specialist in web hosting services. We encourage anyone with an interest in blockchain to explore its applications for your business, whether you are an SME or a large enterprise.”

The NEM Foundation is expected to spend around US$40 million in 2018 to fund its global expansion programmes. US$5 million will be allocated towards supporting blockchain companies incubated in the NBC in Malaysia.

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About NEM Foundation Ltd

NEM Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Singapore, set up to promote NEM’s blockchain technology globally. It is currently one of the most well-funded and successful blockchain technology projects in the cryptocurrency industry.

What is a Blockchain?

A blockchain is a cost-effective way to store a growing list of transaction records that cannot be altered (immutable), encrypted and stored across (distributed) participating PCs, servers, notebooks or any device (called a node) connected to the internet.

• Immutable – Immutable records are data which are stored and cannot be altered or manipulated, bringing trust to the system built on blockchain. A trusted system can replace an intermediary. For example: a law firm acts as an intermediary between a property seller and a property buyer because neither buyer nor seller trust each other to either have the property title or the money to buy the property. If the blockchain is implemented in this instance, the land title will be stored on the blockchain.  The seller would just have to initiate a transaction at an exchange platform by uploading the land title; the exchange then does a system automated swap the moment the exchange receives the payment from the buyer.  An added layer of security can also be added to this transaction if the land title is co-owned by multiple parties where multiple signatories are required to sign off before the land title is uploaded to the exchange or released to the buyer.

• Distributed – Distributed nodes mean there is no single point of failure of which an attack can bring down the entire network. Each node checks against one another to ensure data stored is accurate.  Amended records will automatically be flagged as the blockchain is able to tell when previous records are tampered with.  A good reason to use this feature is when an organisation wishes to reduce security costs (purchasing firewalls, operating system licenses, database licenses, servers) as all data stored on a blockchain is already encrypted and is immutable.

• Node – Each of these nodes constantly checks against each other nodes to ensure their records are similar and do not change.  Each node also verifies and validates if the transaction initiator and recipient is legitimate at the time of processing before it saves the transaction on the blockchain.

Applications of blockchain technology include: