The systems by which goods move around the globe are fundamentally broken.
A business trying to get its products into the hands of buyers needs to deal with months-long settlement times, unfair financing terms, and vast networks of costly intermediaries. It’s a system that’s antiquated, sluggish, and rife with fraud. Or in other words, a system perfectly primed for a blockchain overhaul.
This month, we sat down with one of the leading figures looking to do just that. On the latest episode of The White Papers, Travis John, Head of Institutional at XDC Network, joined us at the Consensus Miami closing party to talk about his firm’s mission to redo the plumbing of global commerce.
The fatal flaws of legacy trade finance
Whenever a business needs to move goods — whether they be a cacao manufacturer in Ecuador, a wholesaler in China, or an auto manufacturer in the United States — they rely on trade finance. This is the layer of the finance industry that keeps global commerce moving, allowing companies to secure working capital, settle payments across borders, and finance shipments long before products ever reach their destination.
