trade on chain

TradeOnChain is an open source blockchain platform designed to revolutionize international trade by digitizing and automating trade contracts. It addresses the inefficiencies, lack of trust, and barriers faced by small businesses in traditional trade. The platform utilizes Self-Sovereign Identity and Verifiable Credentials to create a decentralized environment. Smart contracts automate payments and compliance checks, ensuring data integrity and streamlining the contract lifecycle. Integration with customs systems and payment gateways further simplifies the trade process.

The project aims to bridge the gap between traditional paper-based workflows and modern digital standards, enhancing trust among parties through blockchain technology and verifiable credentials. It strives to empower users with user-centric solutions that promote decentralized collaboration and reduce complexity. By streamlining processes, reducing errors, and accelerating learning in international trade, TradeOnChain aims to improve efficiency and create an open and sustainable ecosystem based on verifiable data exchange. TradeOnChain offers significant benefits, including cost savings by reducing document verification time, eliminating paper usage, and facilitating access to international credit. The platform ensures transparency and security through blockchain technology, providing data integrity and auditable processes. It also aims to make international trade more accessible to businesses without extensive technical or legal knowledge.

Motivation for the project: It's essential as it introduces a trustless, decentralized model for international trade, addressing current inefficiencies and lack of trust.
Generic use case description: A manufacturer in Italy wants to sell a shipment of luxury goods to a retailer in Japan.
Essential functionalities: Digitized contracts: Automates contract creation and management. Self-Sovereign Identity: Enables secure, decentralized identification. Smart contracts: Automates payments and compliance checks. Integration: Connects with customs and payment systems.
How these functionalities can be integrated within the software ecosystem: API Integration: The platform can offer APIs to allow other software within the TrustChain ecosystem to interact with its functionalities, enabling seamless data exchange and process automation. Modular Design: By designing the platform with modular components, other software can selectively integrate specific functionalities, such as identity verification or smart contract execution, without needing to adopt the entire platform. Data Standards: Utilizing standardized data formats and protocols, such as JSON-LD for Verifiable Credentials, ensures compatibility and interoperability with other software in the ecosystem. Blockchain Interoperability: Implementing cross-chain communication protocols allows the platform to interact with different blockchains used within the TrustChain ecosystem, expanding its reach and potential use cases.
Gap being addressed: 1. Centralization and Lack of Trust: Traditional Contracts rely on centralized entities 2. Unstructured Information: Contracts often involve disparate, unstructured data formats 3. Limited Transparency: Difficulty in ensuring transparency and auditability in contract management 4. Complex Compliance Requirements: Navigating International regulations and standards is cumbersome
Expected benefits achieved with the novel technology building blocks: 1. Generate: 31$ Billion in new economic growth – 25% Extra SME trade by 2024 2. Reduce: Number of days needed for processing documents by up to 75% 3. Free Up: $278 billion in efficiency recycled into the real economy 6 4. Generate: $ 1 billion to tackle the trade finance gap.
Potential demonstration scenario: A cross-border trade transaction between two SMEs, utilizing the platform to create, execute, and manage a digitized contract, showcasing the automation of payments, compliance checks, and interaction with customs systems.