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In a space notorious for promising radical transformations, but which until now has provided mostly prototypes, Roberto Mancone, we.trade's chief operating officer, has a record of remedies to his commitments.
At the beginning of last year, he promised that the commercial finance blockchain platform would be operational by mid-2018, which he did, focusing on trade between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in various European countries.
Later in the year, we.trade promised that he would make his first move outside of Europe, which he did, by announcing a project to explore interoperability with ETradeConnect from Hong Kong and a move in Asia.
Corporate blockchain observers will also remember that Mancone predicted that Batavia, the other commercial finance blockchain built on Hyperledger Fabric, would probably join forces with we.trade. This happened more or less. Batavia no longer exists; of its five banks, three have decided to join us. (All in all, we.trade grew from seven stock banks to 12 over the past year and a total of 14 licensee banks.)
Given its prescience, therefore, it is worth listening to what Mancone has to say about the year to come. According to him, 2019 will be a year of partnership for we.trade.
"In addition to piling customers on the platform, our goal is to continue extending to Asia and also develop some strategic partnerships outside the financial market," he told CoinDesk.
The objective of these links is to accelerate the proliferation of the platform to new territories and to take it beyond the aspects financed by bank finance, to ultimately create a comfortable and frictionless user experience for the clients involved in all areas of the trade world. As Mancone used to say:
"The last trip for the customers is not necessarily to work with a great player who does everything, but with a group of players that allows a trip without interruptions."
Explaining we.trade's interest in connecting with eTradeConnect, Mancone said: "Instead of building something or licensing something, we wanted to see if we could connect to platforms that have similarities in terms of products, because that will save a lot of time and energy."
It should also be stressed that the mere acquisition of a banking blockchain platform in production remains a rare practice a day today. This makes us something of a rockstar, at least in the corporate blockchain world.
For 2019, the goal of geographical expansion will be "extended Asia", which could include Singapore, the Southeast Pacific region and India, or the United Arab Emirates, said Mancone. Regarding the timing of the Hong Kong PoC, Mancone said: "We expect to finish this test by the end of the first quarter and, when we are at ease, we will try to switch to production".
Showing a remarkable whiteness, Mancone also shared openly who he wants with us.
Potential partners
A platform on which Mancone has an eye is the DLT distribution chain of IBM and Maersk, TradeLens, also made using Hyperledger Fabric. Given the interest in global trade and the fact that IBM is the original development partner of we.trade, some form of collaboration would not have been a big surprise.
TradeLens has digitized documentation for the entire supply chain, while we.trade smart contracts automate and guarantee transactions between the SME banks that import and export goods with one another.
With TradeLens, IBM and Maersk have already linked numerous customs and port authorities, transport companies, shipping and logistics all over the world. Combining this with we.trade would be "a turning point," said Mancone.
"A project like TradeLens is, of course, extremely interesting for us.If you think of the ecosystem we want to build, our platform is not a commercial finance platform, it's a commercial platform," he said.
Mancone has recognized that the creation of a partnership like this would require serious talks, adding that "we are constantly checking each other and constantly talking to understand where these other projects are".
Apparently, the feeling is mutual. Todd Scott, vice president of IBM's global blockchain, told CoinDesk:
"TradeLens and we.trade are both transforming their industries, and we believe there is significant potential and value in these collaborating platforms."
Another platform proposal that Mancone is looking at is TradeShift, which simplifies payments and purchases through supply chains for large corporate customers and has about 1.5 million users in its network.
TradeShift, which did not respond to requests for comments by press time, remained relatively quiet about blockchain despite becoming a member of Hyperledger as a premier member in 2017.
"We talked with them," said Mancone. "TradeShift and we.trade would be a good fit in terms of complementary roles.I believe that when I mention 2019 as the partnership year, TradeShift could be one of the potential partners".
Indicating the specific capabilities of each platform, Mancone added,
"TradeLens is the digitization of the entire supply chain and documents, TradeShift is really a contract, while we have conditional payments and smart contracts – so if you put all these pieces together, it's a good image."
Intellectual property
Taking a step back, we.trade stands out from other corporate blockchain efforts because it is a company rather than a consortium. As such, its governance structure appears to be acceptable to shareholder and licensee banks, while allowing the platform to move faster than its competitors.
As Mancone explained:
"We have made it very clear that intellectual property is not owned by banks, this is a great distinction between us and the other consortia, we are a legal entity and the IP is owned by the legal entity and can be licensed to any other bank or partner without asking them to become shareholders, with currently 12 shareholder banks this means an average of almost 9% of the shares. "
Mancone said that the banks are content to not own the IP (provided that their competitors do not), while maintaining an equal share of the cake.
"Anyone who is interested in the company or believes that the company can be of benefit can become a shareholder, not the number of shareholders," he said. "This creates better acceptance because we put them all on the same level in terms of functionality, functionality and the platform we provide."
Moving quickly to production is a good reason to avoid the traditional consortium model where a lot of time is spent around a table, probably with attorneys present. However, the we.trade approach is also a significant breakthrough from TradeLens, where the IP is split between Maersk and IBM, something obstacle when it comes to bringing other carriers into the network.
At the moment we.trade development is entrusted to IBM, which also provides a private cloud architecture. Mancone has stated that this is due to the fact that "we want to have a very light company with a very strong partner to start and other partners to come".
But he said that going forward the company is taking on technical skills and the plan is also to create an API infrastructure so that fintech companies can tap into the platform and help improve it.
He said that this would reduce dependence on a supplier and encourage the creation of an ecosystem. In terms of forming deeper partnerships with IBM, Mancone said that there are clear differences between the components or activities developed by Big Blue, which owns the IP and the same we.trade platform.
"But the whole platform that is being built, as it is, is the we.trade IP," he said. "So there's clearly a differentiation between the IP owned by IBM, which are the individual components that allow us to build the platform, and the platform itself that is the we.trade IP. "
Image by Roberto Mancone courtesy of CPI Media Group
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