The world's first fully blockchain-enabled credential led marketplace

QUT Design Lab and Smart Trade Networks are set to launch and demonstrate the world's first fully blockchain-enabled credential led marketplace.

The Smart Trade Networks marketplace is an eCommerce 3.0 platform allowing traders and investors of all sizes to track, trace and trade. The launch will also reveal a 'Global Portfolio', with more than 30 commercial vendors using the platform to track products they will ultimately add to the marketplace.

"eCommerce has reached a crisis point with problems around vendor transparency, fake reviews and product counterfeiting," says QUT adjunct professor, chair and co-founder of Smart Trade Networks, Warwick Powell.

"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 says.

QUT Design Lab founder, professor Marcus Foth, says the blockchain-based platform protects supply chain data within a decentralised trading system.

"The applied research across design, business, law and computer science has informed the development of this cutting-edge platform," he says.

"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.

"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 multi-signature protocols."

Foth says they plan to extend the platform's usability and expand the portfolio of marketplaces for additional commodities and new domestic and international markets. Issues like carbon abatement certification feature prominently in supply chain integrity credentials.

Marketplaces for beef, wine and even hydrogen have been tested on the Smart Trade Networks platform. New marketplaces will be launched at the event, including 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.

The marketplace will be launched on Thursday, 19 August, at QUT Gardens Point and online.