The Smart Trade Networks marketplace is an eCommerce 3.0 platform that promises to allow traders and investors of all sizes to track, trace and trade with confidence.
On Thursday 19 August, QUT and Smart Trade Networks launched and demonstrated the world’s first fully blockchain-enabled credentialled marketplace. The launch will also reveal a ‘Global Portfolio’ – more than 30 commercial vendors using the platform to track products they will ultimately put into the marketplace.
QUT Adjunct Professor Warwick Powell, chair and co-founder of Smart Trade Networks, said eCommerce had reached a crisis point with problems around vendor transparency, fake reviews and product counterfeiting.
“Concerns about deteriorating integrity in the global supply chain raise doubts about credibility, particularly in the food space, and this erodes consumer trust.
“Blockchain is the groundwork for eCommerce 3.0, an environment where merchants, brand owners and others are held to account and where the products themselves are also traceable.
“We’ve developed the first version of this kind of infrastructure globally. Consumers will be able to experience something quite different in the future,” he said.
QUT Design Lab founder Professor Marcus Foth from the QUT School of Design said the blockchain-based platform protects supply-chain data within a decentralised trading system.
He said applied research across design, business, law and computer science informed the development of this cutting-edge platform.
“In this marketplace, consumers can track and trace a product’s history and directly and independently query the blockchain to validate the authenticity of a transaction or product claim,” Professor Foth said.
“It integrates a range of industry-requested functionalities, including peer-to-peer finance through an escrow deal room, a crypto-token wallet, and verification of credentials through state-of-the-art multisig protocols.
“Next, we will extend the platform’s usability and expand the portfolio of marketplaces for additional commodities and new domestic and international markets where issues like carbon abatement certification feature prominently in terms of supply-chain integrity credentials.”
Marketplaces for beef, wine and even hydrogen are being tested on the Smart Trade Networks platform. At the event, new marketplaces will be launched including [those for] lamb, premium fruits, herbs, wines and artisan liquor.
The new eCommerce 3.0 platform is the outcome of an ongoing R&D collaboration involving QUT Design Lab, QUT School of Law, QUT School of Computer Science, Smart Trade Networks and the Future Food Systems CRC.
This article appeared first on the QUT News site on 16 August 2021. It has been republished here, with minor editorial modifications, courtesy of QUT Media. View the original story.