What is Eximchain?
Eximchain has its sights set on Supply Chain Finance, a global industry in dire need of the advantages that only blockchain technology can offer. Their public, permissionless blockchain uses smart contracts to optimise supply chains while improving the ability of small and medium-sized enterprises to access much-needed funding. Through Eximchain, for the first time every participant in the supply chain industry will be enabled to connect, transact and share knowledge with one another. In usage, the benefits of Eximchain will be conveyed to all participants in the supply chain flow; buyers, suppliers and lenders. For example, Zara could track its inventory in real time on the Eximchain ecosystem, in turn being enabled to forecast its loan repayment date with total accuracy when communicating with their trade finance lender.
Eximchain’s innovative platform will enable supply chain companies of all sizes and dynamics to benefit from the digital revolution; providing investors with the data needed to make investment decisions, while offering a highly secure environment appropriate for enterprises across the board to streamline their operations. This solution will enable all parties to experience new levels of efficiency, transparency and security in Supply Chain Finance, Logistics and Sourcing.
Founded in 2015 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the project is the brainchild of Can Kisagun, co-founder of the established privacy project Enigma. Eximchain’s establishment at MIT benefits greatly from a range of the institute’s powerful networks and range of resources- and unsurprisingly the Eximchain team leverages decades of proven experience in in the supply chain industry. The project’s tremendous standing has attracted widespread attention, gaining entry to the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance.
What problem is it solving?
Eximchain addresses the gross inefficiencies of supply chain finance that occur due to a lack of transparency and interconnectivity in its architecture. These inadequacies result in multi-billion dollar losses annually, and have plagued the Supply Chain Industry for decades; with SMEs facing trillion-dollar financing gaps internationally.
As supply chains stretch further throughout the globe, the networks of buyers and suppliers continuously expand across borders and corporations. The complexity of managing capital and processes in this context is enormous, leaving funds trapped inside supply chains. The sheer scale of this cannot be understated- with an estimated $18 billion left locked away uncaptured by all players involved every year, and a $2 trillion financing gap faced in developing countries according to the IFC. While to some degree large corporations and banks benefit from this process, small to medium-sized enterprises suffer enormously, losing profits and funds from prospective investors.
While Supply Chain Finance poses the obvious solution to these issues, there is no tool in existence that eliminates information imbalances. On account of this lack of transparency, suppliers, buyers and investors have experience sub-standard outcomes and profit losses across the board- with participants regularly improving their own profit at the loss of others.
Eximchain has erased the inadequacies of current SCFs and developed a solution to all of the above challenges, enabling supply chain businesses of all sizes, in addition to every participant in a trillion-dollar global industry to experience optimum outcomes. The ecosystem has been engineered to achieve optimal outcomes for all by creating no incentive for any buyer, supplier or lender to deviate from the best outcome possible. As a result, SMEs will have immediate access to more affordable funding while maximising profits- all achieved by the creation of a visible, unalterable ecosystem on their QuorumChain blockchain. With Eximchain, every participant is able to experience a bespoke supply chain finance solution.
What is the core technology?
Under the hood, Eximchain has built a fork of Quorum, an Ethereum-based protocol focused on enterprises used widely in the finance industry (notably adopted by JPMorgan). Eximchain has tailored this technology to provide privacy for transactions, while achieving network-wide transparency.
With the integration of Zero-Knowledge Proof Security into its Quorum fork, Eximchain’s blockchain offers the privacy and confidentiality needed for transactions without the loss of transparency on the network (occuring in Bitcoin, for example). In practice, this enables Eximchain users to conduct network-validated, proven transactions without revealing themselves. This is a unique combination that makes their solution perfectly suited to supply chain businesses; where privacy is a must in the context of an enterprise-based industry where relationships and data are your edge over the competitor.
In its entirety, the ecosystem packages a blockchain, platform layer and software development kit to enable financiers, buyers and suppliers to develop custom solutions that result in total supply chain optimisation.
Summary.
With the ICO craze continuing full steam ahead in 2018, it pays to take notice of projects that matter; ventures that actually solve an existing issue and prove their ability to pull it off. Through Eximchain’s trusted and transparent ecosystem, buyers, suppliers and investors will benefit from optimised Supply Chain Finance outcomes globally. Given Eximchain’s clear usage case, innovative solution to a likely trillion-dollar problem, and highly credible standing, to both prospective ICO investors and all participants in the supply chain industry: buckle up and prepare for blast-off.
You can find more about Eximchain on Telegram, Twitter or their whitepaper.
