Banking, Financial Services & Insurance
A Future-Ready Platform Connects and Digitalizes the Precious Metal Market
Success Story
aXedras, a Swiss technology startup, had a revolutionary idea to develop a digital verification platform for the precious metal market that would help put in place international standards and tools for verifying assets’ provenance and traceability. Their journey from concept to market had already begun with a prototype and Scalefocus came on board as a technology partner that would provide both industry consultancy and tech capabilities. The blockchain-based infrastructure connecting mines, refineries, banks, and buyers went live within a year of our collaboration and can now be integrated with the various ERP systems of the platform’s clients.
Next-generation digital solution - from inception to launch
Decentralized network connecting all players
Transparency of all transactions at all levels
The Client
aXedras, a Swiss technology startup, had a vision for a connected and digitalized precious metal market back in 2017 when they created a prototype of an asset and data integrity platform. The company worked with various market associations in developing a POC for a bullion software solution using Digital Ledger Technology (DLT) that would be fully standardized on a global scale. aXedras also collaborated with national and international authorities to shape the legal international framework for DLT. After the successful development of their prototype, they needed an innovation-driven technology partner that would help them bring their idea from concept to market. Our proven track record with FinTech projects was what motivated aXedras to join forces with Scalefocus on this exciting journey to digitalize an entire industry.
The Solution
As 2020 turned to be a record-setting year for gold, the international trading and investment community was reminded once again that the precious metal market, despite its centuries-old traditions, still has a long way to go in terms of streamlining its operations. It has so far failed to utilize instruments to safeguard the authenticity of assets and to provide the much-needed transactional transparency for stakeholders. As gold’s relevance skyrocketed with the progression of the Covid-19 crisis, it became blatantly obvious there were no such tools in place. The industry had a gaping need for working mechanisms to help document the provenance of products and to provide a track record of their lifecycles.
The technology collaboration between Scalefocus and aXedras began with the clear idea that we were not going to disrupt the precious metal industry, which has solid traditions and operates within a defined framework. Rather, the idea was to help each player comply with the rules and regulations of the very market they operate in through a blockchain-based infrastructure. It allows for a private permissible network where members can transfer data to their business partners securely. Through the decentralization DLT provides, participants can be sure information has not been adjusted or manipulated and maintain full confidentiality while having the necessary transactional transparency.
The way the verification platform works is once an asset, such as a gold bar, is refined, it gets a digital twin carrying all of the information about it: where the asset is coming from, details about the manufacturing process, how and when it was moved as well as who took part in the various lifecycle stages. The platform members as such have access to the provenance and quality data whenever and wherever—it’s digitally available—and can take advantage of the asset’s full traceability. This connects the different players and simplifies daily operations, such as transport, compliance and trade.
Due to the complexity of the project, as well as the Covid-19 crisis, our team adjusted the development approach in alignment with the dynamic changes 2020 brought. We worked with different teams across Europe and put the solution through multiple iterations to make sure all objectives were met and stakeholders could get the most out of the platform with just a few clicks. We paid special attention to making the solution easy to integrate with various databases and ERP systems stakeholders use, including in terms of hosting and cloud infrastructure.
Scalefocus involvement in the project was focused on:
Industry consultancy due to our FinTech expertise
Design and development of client-facing applications
Blockchain integration management
Infrastructure development and cloud solutions (DevOps)
End-to-end quality assurance
Integration of the solution with stakeholders’ ERPs
Results
Asset integrity, provenance and traceability are of significant importance for sustainable investments in the precious metal industry. The digital verification platform Scalefocus and aXedras developed to guarantee full transparency is now up and running, having onboarded users and stakeholders from all across Europe who can interact with it independently.
As a next step we will keep doing engineering work to add more features and modules so that user adoption increases on a global level. Scalefocus developed the idea from inception to market all through the Covid-19 crisis and delivered a next-generation digital solution connecting mines, refineries, banks and buyers seamlessly and instantly. This state-of-the art platform is the first to connect and digitalize the precious metal industry making both Scalefocus and aXedras true technology trailblazers.
Deliverables:
From inception to market: a prototype to next-generation digital solution
One decentralized network connecting all players in the precious metal industry
Proximity: players from all around the world are in touch seamlessly and instantly
Transparency of all transactions at all levels in an asset’s life cycle
Our Work
We have a global client base that includes Fortune 500 companies, innovative startups and industry leaders in Information Technology, E-Commerce, Insurance, Healthcare, Finance and Energy & Utilities.
