This piece appearing in Forbes is basically an indicator that a key primary business use case for blockchain is getting closer to a more scalable offering. The use case is around supply chain services, which could include any of the various interactions along the way, including financing and payments. In this case, a blockchain practice head from Deloitte is joining the startup venture Citizens Reserve to build out a combination public/private chain business model to support supply chain, including payments. The Ethereum blockchain will be used to create the cross-border payment functionality, using a tweaked version of their own ERC20 crypto called ‘zerv’. The permissioned chain will be based on Quorum and used for the various supply chain interactions, including smart contracts that can facilitate automatic payment release throughout the cycle.
It is this combination of the public blockchain infrastructure that powers the $66 billion Ethereum cryptocurrency, with a private solution designed to help JPMorgan and others comply with regulatory restrictions that Piscini thinks is primed to make supply chain the next big industry to be disrupted by the technology.
We have seen a number of recent announcement around the trade services space vis-à-vis blockchain, including another ‘first’ claim, this one from HSBC regarding a letter of credit, using the R3 consortium’s Corda platform.
HSBC claimed on Monday it had performed the world’s first commercially viable trade finance transaction using blockchain technology. The bank issued a letter of credit for U.S. food and agriculture firm Cargill. The trade finance transaction involved a bulk shipment of soybeans from Argentina to Malaysia. The letter of credit was issued from HSBC to Dutch lender ING.
The piece goes on to describe Citizens Reserve’s funding strategy and initial targeting of the defense industry as a primary focus to grow the company.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
