{"id":107994,"date":"2022-02-20T15:48:59","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T23:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globaltrademag.com\/?p=107994"},"modified":"2022-02-20T15:24:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T23:24:27","slug":"digitizations-next-frontier-non-fungible-tokens-are-a-game-changer-for-trade-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globaltrademag.com\/digitizations-next-frontier-non-fungible-tokens-are-a-game-changer-for-trade-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"DIGITIZATION\u2019S NEXT FRONTIER: NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS ARE A GAME CHANGER FOR TRADE FINANCE"},"content":{"rendered":"
Trade finance is known for its stubbornness in the face of change. Even as the world has gone digital, paper-based manual processes remain commonplace across the complex network of counterparties involved in financing global trade. Thankfully, the tide is now turning. To digitize or not digitize is no longer the question\u2013it\u2019s now a case of \u201cwhen,\u201d not \u201cif.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
The operational challenges of relying on manual processes and systems are well known and much maligned across the industry\u2013incorrect documentation and KYC, non-interoperable systems, manual reconciliation, poor visibility, excessive costs, to name just a few.<\/span><\/p>\n
Digital solutions have emerged in many different shapes and sizes, but one of the technologies which seems most encouraging is enterprise blockchain. Trade is a fundamentally decentralized system. The industry is heavily intermediated\u2013predominantly by banks that help to facilitate transactions and provide the financing behind them, but also by insurers, customs officials and other market participants. Firms have tried countless times to apply centralized solutions to this decentralized system but, unsurprisingly, none have really worked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The decentralized nature of blockchain makes it a perfect fit for trade finance. For the first time, the entire industry is getting behind a technology and moving it into real world deployment at a record pace. The architecture underpinning the entire ecosystem of trade is undergoing complete digital transformation, and exciting new blockchain-enabled developments continue to emerge. One such development is non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. But what are they and how do they benefit participants?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
WHAT IS AN NFT?<\/b><\/p>\n
A non-fungible token is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger. NFTs use blockchain technology to provide a public proof of ownership. You\u2019ve probably heard of NFTs in the entertainment industry, largely because they can be associated as unique items with easily reproducible items such as photos, videos, audio and other types of digital files. But they also have wide applicability in the financial services space\u2013and specifically in trade finance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n