Trafigura, the global commodity trading house, is experimenting with a distributed ledger system for processing trades in crude oil. In March it announced that it is working with Natixis, a French bank, and IBM to develop a platform that will digitize crude oil trades, and said the new system will offer "improved transparency, enhanced security and optimized efficiency. The system is hosted on IBM's cloud platform, Bluemix, and is built on an open source network called Hyperledger Fabric.
"The new trading platform allows trade documents, shipment updates, delivery and payment status to be shared across a single shared ledger, helping to reduce transaction time, duplication of documents and authentication processes among all trading partners," the three companies said. "Traditionally these transactions require complex workflows and paper-based processes in which documentation is shared through courier, fax and email exchange."
