Six weeks ago, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) unveiled the ICC Blockchain/DLT Alliance. The initiative aims to support supply chains and cross border trade finance for its 45 million members. Today its blockchain partner, the startup Perlin Network announced that Perlin and the ICC will establish the Centre of Future Trade (CoFT) in Singapore to help companies to digitize trade.
Additionally, government agency Enterprise Singapore plans to work with the ICC and Perlin to target major commodity players.
Enterprise Singapore welcomed the move. “The Centre capitalises on Singapore’s strengths as a leading trading hub, its skilled talent pool, and strong connectivity to the rest of the world,” said Satvinder Singh, Assistant CEO of Enterprise Singapore.
He continued: “With CoFT, Singapore-based international trading companies will have more opportunities to test and develop strategies and new technologies that will put them in good stead to succeed in the ever-evolving trading industry.”
Having ICC as a partner puts the initiative in a strong position. But it’s entering a crowded market with numerous blockchain projects already targeting commodities sectors.
Commodities blockchain projects
| Commodity | Consortium/ Company |
| Agribusiness | ABCCD: ADM, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Dreyfus |
| Sugar | Al Khaleej Sugar |
| Oil | VAKT |
| Gold, Silver | Tradewind |
| Metals Trading | Forcefield |
| Metals | Minehub |
| Cobalt | IBM, Ford + |
| Tantalum | Circulor |
| Trade finance | komgo |
“Through our collaboration with Perlin, we aim to create opportunities for our members to tap into blockchain’s tremendous potential in areas such as supply chain traceability, trade finance and anti-counterfeiting,” said John Denton AO, Secretary General of the ICC.
Perlin says it has deployed pilots “across a wide range of commodities, based on applications it has already developed.” The solutions address traceability and proving authenticity. However, Perlin’s distributed ledger isn’t yet live, nor is its public test network. But much like beta testing, it’s still possible to run pilots in private.
Perlin has several distinctive features. But the most significant difference is that it’s a public ledger targeting businesses. At the moment, the vast majority of enterprise blockchain applications choose private permissioned blockchains. But Perlin is a public distributed ledger.
