(Yicai Global) Jan. 23 -- Meitu Inc., which made popular Chinese selfie app Meitu Xiuxiu, plans to develop a blockchain-based facial recognition system to decentralize user authentication.

The firm will create a dedicated pass for users based on facial recognition and artificial intelligence algorithms accumulated over several years, it said yesterday.

Social and financial smartphone applications often turn to third-party organizations for their authentication systems, but centralized methods can easily lead to leaks, tampering or data forging, the statement said. Different countries may also require different security certificates, which could be problematic, but Meitu believes blockchain could be the answer to all of these issues.

Meitu didn't provide a specific timeline for the program or related products, but said it expects to use the technology in the financial, medical and education sectors initially, later spreading to other fields.

Meitu founded MTLab in 2010 to study computer vision, deep learning networks and other cutting-edge AI technologies. As of 2016, its Meitu Xiuxiu app had processed 68 million photos in total, providing a huge database for the company to research from.