Though Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma may think bitcoin is a bubble, the e-commerce conglomerate firmly believes in blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies, and says it could reshape the world’s financial system in next 20 years.

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, is one of the wealthiest people in the world and seen as a global ambassador for Chinese business, ranked 2nd in the annual “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list by Fortune in 2017.  

On Saturday as the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad kicked off his five-day visit to China starting with tours of the Hangzhou headquarters of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma made comment on the nowadays tech,

“Alibaba has been paying close attention to three key technologies – blockchain adopted in finance, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IOT (Internet of Things).

Blockchain is not all about bitcoin, it’s about trust, credit, security, etc. Blockchain, together with the internet, will reshape world’s financial system in the next 20 years.”

In Ma’s view, blockchain will be adopted in fight against counterfeit and defective products. If China does not take a firm approach to protecting intellectual property rights, innovations in the country would be discouraged; so big companies would like to work with the government to solve the problem.

Alibaba, the enterprise holding the world’s most blockchain patents, has been keen on leveraging blockchain technology in several scenarios like public welfare, e-commerce and finance.

Early in October 2016, Ali Cloud has launched the world’s first blockchain-based email evidence repository, which allows users to synchronized and store critical data in emails to third parties, even judicial department.

Months later in March 2017, Alibaba joined hands with PwC to explore blockchain in fight against food fraud and increase the traceability of food products, and more attempts on blockchain in health care and renting.

Recently its payment affiliate Ant Financial (formerly known as Alipay) has trialed its first cross-border remittances between Hong Kong and the Philippines, a move touted as the first mobile wallet-based money transfer supported by blockchain technology.