The centuries-old, paper-based trading process of the oil and gas industry was overhauled last year, courtesy of the blockchain and an industry consortium originally including Shell, BP, ABN Amro, ING, and Societe Generale.
The industry platform, called VAKT, announced yesterday that a host of new petrochemical and oil giants – including Chevron, Total, and Reliance – are joining the likes of Shell and jumping aboard the energy trading platform, Reuters reports.
Traditionally, the buying and selling of energy commodities is paper-based, meaning that credit notes and invoices have to be completed manually, and then emailed, faxed, or even posted to the relevant parties.
VAKT’s creators believe that putting the process on the blockchain will make it a faster, cheaper, and more secure way of trading commodities.
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At first, VAKT was available only to the original members of the consortium. With the new additions it appears that a full market wide roll out could be in the platform’s near future.
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