Onchain, an open-source universal blockchain system built by AntShares, today announced a partnership with China-based Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to provide technology for the Ali Cloud, Alibaba’s cloud computing branch.

The Onchain platform, called the Law Chain, will provide proof-of-existence for a blockchain-powered email evidence repository as a bottom-layer framework designed for enterprise-level use.

This partnership was discussed by Ali Cloud at the recent 2016 Yunqi Cloud Conference in in Hangzhou, China. Antshares also received $4.5 million in investment funding on Sept. 30 through crowdsourced fundraising.

As a communications channel, email sees significant use across all Internet businesses and has also been used in the past as evidence in courtrooms and during legal investigations. Often this is done by sifting through archives of stored emails to discover past communications. However, archives can be subject to corruption, deletion and even sabotage.

With Ali Cloud’s new Onchain blockchain platform it will be possible for corporate users to synchronize and store critical data (along with cryptographic verification) of important emails to third parties. This is done by attaching a copy of the data to the Onchain blockchain while sending, which provides proof-of-existence of the email, secures the data within the email and provides provenance and a timeline.

If a conflict occurs, users can download the emails in question from the blockchain platform and send them to the judicial departments, or to an internal or external investigative body. A review can then be conducted by examining the cryptographic hash attached to the data in order to verify integrity and by comparing the data against the Onchain blockchain to verify timeline and security.

“Blockchain technology is expanding into more territories due to its high efficiency, advanced security, functionality, and low cost,” said Da Hongfei, chief executive of Onchain and founder of Antshares. “This combination of blockchain technology and digital evidence storage will completely alter the landscape of traditional evidence storage, bringing more efficiency and security.”

Public and permissioned blockchains have been explored by businesses and enterprise in order to secure transmitted data between separate entities. For example, real estate startup Ubiquity uses the blockchain platform Storj to provide proof-of-transfer; Guardtime AS signed with the Estonian government to secure provenance for one million health records; and Factom Inc. has been working with the government of Honduras to provide a blockchain layer for land ownership.

Antshares partnership with Ali Cloud provides an enterprise-level use of blockchain technology to secure something that corporate offices engage in constantly: communication. Blockchains can be used to provide secured, auditable trails for communication, activities and transactions. Securing important emails could only be the tip of the iceberg for the Onchain and Ali Cloud partnership.

Featured image credit: CEO Da Hongfei introducing the Onchain Framework to a crowd courtesy of Antshares