While data is already a valuable commodity in today’s market, its value could grow even more with further improvements in privacy-preserving computation, according to Ant Group chairman Eric Jing.

Emerging technologies are playing an increasingly critical role in business across blockchain, artificial intelligence and more. As a result, data is one of the most valuable commodities within these fields and according to Ant Group chairman and CEO Eric Jing, its value could be further enhanced with a new type of processing technique: privacy-preserving computing.

This is a technique that allows for the computation of encrypted data while maintaining protection and preventing theft or abuse. Jing said that Ant is currently focusing on bringing the cost of privacy-preserving computation lower and in line with other forms of computation. 

«If we can achieve that, then the value of the data can explode,» Jing told Sopnendu Mohanty, the chief fintech officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, during a panel at this week’s Singapore FinTech Festival 2023.