Blockchain technology is increasingly being embraced by not only tech-dependent firms but also data-intensive sectors, such as trade and finance.

The usual bottlenecks in international trade include prolonged procedures, multiple participants and a lack of information transparency.

However, that might not be an issue for traders in the future, as Antchain, the blockchain developer from Alipay's Ant Group, has come up with a way to shorten trade transactions and make them more reliable.

"Demands for credit investigation are very high in international trade, due to information asymmetry. We first launched the blockchain-based service on our global e-commerce platform and are now offering it to the public," said Antchain's Senior Chief Product Officer (CPO), Liang Zhihua. "Companies can also use it to track the quality of products and do more targeted marketing."

Shared public ledgers could also improve cross-border financial transfers and provide solutions to many social and legal problems. For example, content creators could enforce their copyrights at a low cost by using blockchain technology.

"Using blockchain, content creators can register their copyrights easily. When infringements occur, the blockchain technology will help copyright holders find it and store evidence on blockchain-based platforms. Courts could review evidence directly on the platform," said He Guangquan, Antchain's CPO of evidence storage products.

Other industries are also looking into blockchain technology and setting up their own blockchains for industry insiders to use.

Wanxiang Blockchain offers the technology to companies in areas including logistics and financial leasing and says semi-private blockchains could connect in the future. For example, companies in related businesses could use a blockchain together, running it as a consortium.

"Inter-blockchain communication technology is like the internet. There would be a public blockchain, which everyone can use, and companies could also join the blockchain for their own industry, like joining a local area network. The technology will let these semi-private blockchains communicate with one another," said Du Yu, Wanxiang Blockchain deputy general manager.

Global market intelligence firm IDC has estimated that China's expenditure on blockchains will surpass two billion U.S. dollars by 2023. Meanwhile, Shanghai is set to issue the country's first local blockchain security standard to help spur developments.