VAKT, a company formed by an energy consortium, launched its blockchain-powered post-trade processing and management platform for commodities. The launch , now in physically traded BFOET crude oil contracts, will be extended later to all physically traded energy commodities.
VAKT is an independent company created and backed by nine leading energy companies, commodity traders and banks - BP, Equinor, Shell, Gunvor, Mercuria, Koch Supply & Trading, ABN Amro, ING and Societe Generale.
The platform was created by VAKT in partnership with global software consultancy ThoughtWorks and supported by JPMorgan's Quorum private distributed ledger.
The platform eliminates the age-old problems in reconciliation and paper-based processes by managing physical energy transactions from trade entry to final settlement on blockchain to transform the full trade lifecycle. Trade finance will also be fully digitalized with an integrated banking marketplace.
BP, Equinor, Shell, Gunvor and Mercuria are participants in the initial launch as the platform's first users. They will run the blockchain platform in parallel with their internal systems. The platform is set to open to the wider market in January 2019.
The blockchain platform is expected to provide 30 to 40 percent efficiency and trade finance savings through improved speed and security, which benefits everyone along the supply chain from market participants to customers.
In September, a consortium of fifteen of the world's largest banks, trading companies, an energy major, and an inspection company set out to develop a similar decentralized Ethereum blockchain-powered commodity trading platform in partnership with ConsenSys. It is expected to catalyze the world's commodity trade finance network.
The new joint venture called "komgo SA" will be managed and operated as an independent entity. The fifteen investors in the venture include ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Crédit Agricole CIB, Gunvor, ING, Koch, Macquarie, Mercuria, MUFG Bank, Natixis, Rabobank, Shell, SGS and Societe Generale.
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