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Vakt, a London-based blockchain startup that processes post-trade transactions, has penned a memorandum of understanding with essDOCS, a paperless trader solution provider.
As per a press release, the new partnership will develop a blockchain-based solution that will digitalize post-trade processes in Europe’s barge market, “offering an easily-retrievable single source of truth for all parties involved in the transaction.”
The move aims to accelerate the post-trade process, eliminate potential errors, and cut costs. Using its CargoDocs DocEx solution, essDocs will replace paper documents including barge receipts with electronic versions. After which, these shipping documents and data will be added to the immutable tamper-proof blockchain platform through Vakt.
“At its core, Vakt is a multisided platform that allows the various parties in a physical energy transaction … to exchange information securely and seamlessly,” Vakt CEO Etienne Amic said. “There are not that many well-conceived solutions allowing these documents to be passed safely in a digital form within current legal constraints. It was therefore a very natural step for us to enter into a collaboration with essDocs, who have been developing solutions in this field for a number of years.”
The companies will initially launch its product in northwest Europe, with plans to expand to the global markets, with essDocs CEO Alexander Goulandris saying “we are exploring additional global markets where eDocs are key to full digitization.”
Created and launched as an independent company in December 2017, Vakt is a blockchain-based post-trade processing platform. It aims to digitalise the existing paper-based process of physical commodity trading. The platform went live last November with its initial backers including BP, Shell and Total and traders Gunvor and Mercuria.
