MINERAC: The Future Of Mineral Trading

By Dmitriy

BTC Wires: There are very few sectors that blockchain hasn’t been put to use in, and now mineral trading is off the list too. Open Mineral, a Switzerland based physical commodities exchange online, has announced their plans to build an association of mining companies and financial organizations which would work towards developing a mineral trading system on blockchain.

Open Mineral has partnered with ConsenSys to set up Minerac, a blockchain project dedicated to making mineral trading and supply chain logistics more efficient. ConsenSys is a U.S. decentralized applications (DApp) developer based in Brooklyn, New York. They have prior experience in this kind of work since they have already set up consortiums for both trade finance and the oil industry.

The company has stated that the logistics of mineral trading is quite multifaceted and that the financing is hard to come by. Coupled with that, the process has been described as “paper heavy.” Thus they strongly endorse the need to bring blockchain into this industry. The company hopes that blockchain will bring about a simplification of the entire trading process, with a boost in profits and improved efficiency

“Minerac will allow stakeholders to securely exchange critical trade documents, such as bills of lading and letters of credit, via the use of smart contracts.”

The Chief Executive of Open Mineral, Boris Eykher has already expressed the growing interest that different companies are taking in this new association. Negotiations are being carried out with interested parties, whom he refused to name as of now.

Sustainability, along with security problems are major concerns of mineral trade which Minerac hopes to eliminate. Roughly, the method will be; sealed bags and containers will be given an ID that will be recorded and stored in the Minerac system. Each individual parcel’s specific information will be updated along with its location and delivery movement information. This will help protect high-value minerals, which will be constantly monitored and prove that they have not passed through any conflict region.

Logistics and supply chain is not a new territory for Blockchain. Back in June, IBM partnered with Walmart, and nine other companies, to develop a blockchain for monitoring food supply globally. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently published a blockchain centric patent application from Walmart, regarding a “secure” delivery management system. This system promises delivery lockers to safely store goods until someone signs and collects them.

 

Dmitriy

Having majored in Social Psychology and Economics, I worked as a team lead of a tech and fundamental analysis lab in the Applied System Analysis Research Institute. I write financial articles for various international media. I also hold the position of a Chief Analyst at RoboForex.

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