Proxeus, IBM Switzerland, Canton Zug, and Swisscom registered Switzerland's first company on blockchain. The process ran on Hyperledger Blockchain, which they connected to existing bank and commercial
Proxeus, IBM Switzerland, Canton Zug, and Swisscom registered Switzerland's first company on blockchain. The process ran on Hyperledger Blockchain, which they connected to existing bank and commercial registry systems.
Swiss law firms Grunder Rechtsanwälte, Kaiser Odermatt & Partner, and Zwicky Windlin & Partner handled the legal work. The blockchain method could "speed-up the registration from a pushcart to a rocket," the firms said, and it cut the time needed to draft legal documents and brought all the different parties into the same workflow.
The digitalswitzerland challenge, a consortium of Switzerland's biggest companies pushing digital change, sponsored the project. Switzerland's company registration process had become a bottleneck: too slow, too bureaucratic, too much paper. Moving the entire process to blockchain with smart contracts let entrepreneurs, lawyers, banks, notaries, and the commercial register operate as one. Documents that took weeks to move between parties now arrive within seconds.
A bank confirms the founder put up the required capital. A notary verifies that necessary documents are present and match legal standards. The commercial register checks that everything complies with law. Once all three parties confirm their portions, the Commercial Register enters the filing into its official records and the Official Gazette of Commerce.
Proxeus began in 2016 to build what it calls the WordPress for blockchain. Developers use it to create blockchain applications that integrate with existing business systems and stay cost-effective.
"We joined this challenge because it offered a perfect proof of concept for Proxeus," said co-founder Antoine Verdon. "The existing system was slow and inefficient. We have proposed a solution that allowed us to radically speed up the registration process by creating a parallel blockchain track, while still producing all the paperwork necessary to document and formally incorporate the company."
Verdon continued: "What we demonstrated today is that without any legislative change, traditional paper-driven, highly iterative processes can be transferred to the blockchain securely and effectively, increasing efficiency and dramatically lowering costs. But incorporating a company is only the first step: by tokenizing company shares and connecting them with crypto-identities, we will be able to automate entire areas of corporate law and financing."
In February, Proxeus raised $25 million through an initial coin offering. Last month, Proxeus won the Swiss Fintech Award for Early Stage Startup of the Year 2018.
