Dallas-based shopping app company 5miles has formed a blockchain lab that will offer technology development services for building new digital infrastructure.
Called 5xlab, the new network infrastructure will be designed in house by the lab’s team of engineers and will be similar to Ethereum, a public open-source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform, the company said.
5miles said the new blockchain network infrastructure — expected to be released this fall — will make it easier for consumers and businesses to transact beyond the traditional internet, and the major companies that dominate e-commerce.
“The 5xlab is, in its own way, a natural but innovative extension of what we already have built.”
Lucas Lu
The company said the final product should be a better a better way of digital transactions and marketplace shopping.
“5miles, as a marketplace, connects people and facilitates transactions, on a safe, convenient, trustworthy platform,” said CEO and founder Lucas Lu. “The 5xlab is, in its own way, a natural but innovative extension of what we already have built.”
Here’s what 5miles envisions for 5xlab:
- Provide technology standardization and technology implementation of underlying smart business contracts
- Support cryptocurrency implementation in order to facilitate the execution of the smart business contracts
- Use 5miles’ 12 existing categories to implement smart business contract templates for those verticals
“Early blockchain technology has yet to eliminate significant barriers for business,” Michael Yuan, 5xlab’s chief scientist, said in a release. “Our aim is to replace the smart contract technology at the core of Ethereum with a more business-friendly smart business contract.”
5miles is a popular shopping app for Android and iOS devices that includes services, housing and jobs, as well as second-hand trading, and has more than 14 million users. It facilitated $5 billion in transactions so far in 2017, the company said.
It was founded in 2014 by Rick Cantu and Liang Lu as a simple, secure environment where sellers and buyers would easily trade goods via the app.
More reading on 5miles
5miles App Introduces New Remote Shipping Feature
5miles Adds Safe Zone Finder for Transactions
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