Press Release: World Traders Investigating The Economic Impact Of Smart Ledgers On World Trade

Monday, 08 January 2018

The Worshipful Company of World Traders, along with the Z/Yen and Long Finance’s Distributed Futures research programme, have commissioned a piece of research provisionally entitled, “The Economic Impact Of Smart Ledgers On World Trade”.

Smart Ledgers are the ‘next big thing’ in technology. They’re based on a combination of Mutual Distributed Ledgers (MDLs, aka blockchain: multi-organisational databases with a super audit trail, used since 2009 in cryptocurrencies) with embedded programming and sensing, thus permitting semi-intelligent, autonomous transactions. Smart Ledgers are touted as a technology for fair play in a globalised world. There are numerous projects building trade systems using this technology with announcements from governments, shipping firms, large IT firms, and the like. The research is intended to inform policy makers and business people making decisions about moving towards these systems.

The World Traders have commissioned Cebr (Centre for Economics and Business Research) to quantify the potential impact of MDL technology on international trade. This will be done through an econometric approach, which maps trade frictions that MDL technology might be able to offset, especially in the realm of non-tariff and bureaucratic barriers to trade. The Master World Trader, Professor Michael Mainelli, and Past Master, Professor Heather McLaughlin, are overseeing the project. The project has been kindly sponsored by the Cardano Foundation, whose mission is the “promotion of developments of new technologies and applications, especially in the fields of new open and decentralised software architectures”. Publication is expected in the first quarter of 2018.

To help contribute, please feel free to get in touch with Oliver Hogan (Chief Economist) or Cristian Niculescu-Marcu (Managing Economist) by contacting Cebr on +44 (0) 20 7324 2850 or via email cniculescumarcu@cebr.com

For further information:

www.world-traders.org

www.distributedfutures.net

www.cardanofoundation.org

www.zyen.com

www.longfinance.net

www.cebr.com

https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/persons/heather-mclaughlin

Notes to Editors

Cardano Foundation - https://cardanofoundation.org/

Cardano Foundation is a blockchain and cryptocurrency organisation based in Zug, Switzerland. The Foundation is dedicated to act as an objective, supervisory and educational body for the Cardano Protocol and its associated ecosystem and serve the Cardano community by creating an environment where advocates can aggregate and collaborate.

The Foundation aims to influence and progress the emerging commercial and legislative landscape for blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. Its strategy is to pro-actively approach government and regulatory bodies and to form strategic partnerships with businesses, enterprises and other open-source projects. The Foundation's core mission is to "standardise, protect and promote" the Cardano Protocol technology.

Long Finance – www.longfinance.net

Established in 2007, Long Finance aims to improve society's understanding and use of finance over the long term by hosting and promoting a series of lectures, discussion events and research publications. The initiative began with a question –­ “when would we know our financial system is working?” – and seeks to challenge a financial system that revolves around short-term thinking and practices.

Z/Yen Group – www.zyen.com

Z/Yen is the City of London’s leading commercial think-tank, founded to promote societal advance through better finance and technology. Z/Yen ‘asks, solves, and acts’ on strategy, finance, systems, marketing and intelligence projects in a wide variety of fields. Z/Yen manages the Long Finance initiative.

For further information contact:
Z/Yen Group
41 Lothbury
London EC2R 7HG
United Kingdom
tel: +44 (0) 207-562-9562
hub@zyen.com