Introducing ConsenSys Codefi: The Blockchain Operating System for Global Commerce and Finance.

A new product suite bringing blockchain to businesses.

Today ConsenSys is excited to introduce ConsenSys Codefi, a product suite built for the next generation of commerce and finance. ConsenSys Codefi is utilizing blockchain technology to optimize business processes and payments, digitize financial instruments, and build customized decentralized applications.

Since 2014, ConsenSys has tokenized billions of dollars in digital assets, including a wide range of consumer products, stablecoins, real estate, and financial instruments, and ConsenSys software and infrastructure has powered tens of billions of dollars in blockchain-based transactions. Through our applications, we have served hundreds of thousands of users, ranging from central banks and major financial institutions to developers and retail users of the Ethereum mainnet.

Our solutions not only navigate but also help shape regulation and public policy. As the official blockchain partner of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum, and as a founding member of Global Digital Finance and The Brooklyn Project, we are equipped to navigate and deploy blockchain-based software in the most complex of regulatory environments.

Why We Built ConsenSys Codefi

Commerce and finance are evolving as the infrastructure, manufacturing, and distribution value chains move to blockchain networks and digital assets. Just as the internet provided the world access to information, blockchain technology will provide the world with greater access to lower-cost capital through digital assets, financial instruments, and payments servicing.

We built ConsenSys Codefi to help clients benefit from this profound transformation across industries, including trade finance, banking, investing, and real estate. Our platform comprises an “operating system” with modular capability to digitize financial instruments and catalyze new markets. The Codefi platform and product suite empowers organizations to create and deploy digital assets representing a financial instrument in a matter of hours and days compared to the current financial industry-standard months and years.

“By leveraging Ethereum technology to digitize business processes and assets, we have, repeatedly, delivered real-life solutions that are so much better — more compliant, reliable, and cost-effective — that it is clear this is the future of commerce and finance,” says Patrick Berarducci, ConsenSys’ Global Fintech Co-Head. “But to do it correctly, and future proof it, you really need to optimize everything from business processes to compliance, infrastructure and protocol layers. That’s really hard, and that’s why we’re rolling out Codefi. To make it easier for everyone, and to ultimately accelerate the future of decentralized commerce and finance.”

Lex Sokolin, the Global Fintech Co-Head for ConsenSys added: “Over the last decade, innovations in Fintech and the digital transformation of the financial industry have led to broader access to financial products. This is an empowering trend — more people and organizations can pay, save, borrow, and invest in an affordable way. With the global adoption of Ethereum as the programmable blockchain of choice, we see a massive opportunity to help clients benefit from next-generation financial infrastructure, using Codefi to lower the cost of manufacturing financial products and deploying them at scale.”

Looking Forward: The Path Towards Creating a Better Financial System

ConsenSys has long sought to create a digitally native global financial system that is more open, inclusive, and stable. Consensys Codefi utilizes the Ethereum blockchain to enable digital assets and financial services that will form the bedrock of the next generation of commerce and finance.

Codefi leverages the pioneering innovation of the Ethereum ecosystem to create compliant, production-ready blockchain solutions for use-cases across the financial sectors. Using secure APIs and customizable software, Codefi will optimize business processes by creating blockchain native and programmable workflows which will enhance governance, compliance, and system incentives.

ConsenSys believes that digital assets and consumer utility tokens will unlock new potentials for the democratization of commerce and capital. Codefi achieves this mission by facilitating digital financial instruments that have the potential to provide greater liquidity, reduce costs of capital, increase access to a broader investor base, and align incentives between stakeholders.

The Codefi Product Suite

ConsenSys Codefi has created a product suite designed to act as flexible and scalable blockchain modules for any business in commerce and finance.

ConsenSys Codefi

The blockchain operating system for Commerce and Finance, built to optimize business processes and digitize financial instruments.

ConsenSys Codefi enables institutions and businesses to accelerate blockchain development with configurable tools and modules providing shared data standards and common workflows. By leveraging the global reach of networks and markets at the highest level of industry, ConsenSys Codefi reduces infrastructure and operational costs.

Features

• Work with configurable, easy-to-integrate tools to reach production
• Use shared data standards and common workflows to reduce industry costs in the middle and back offices
• Build bespoke decentralized applications with flexible, scalable, and secure blockchain modules that use both public or private blockchains with role permissions and privacy controls

Codefi Assets

A platform to create, issue, and manage the lifecycle of digital assets, associated markets, and digital financial instruments on public or permissioned blockchain networks.

Codefi Assets enables investment firms to manage the lifecycle of their digital assets while streamlining governance, investor relations, and portfolio management. The tokenization platform facilitates token issuance, cap table management, and compliance requirements. Investors are able to use the platform dashboard to purchase tokens, analyze personal portfolios, view exposures, and perform other related actions. Third parties can utilize Codefi Assets to create private label experiences and gain access to new markets and revenue streams.

Features

• Create a tokenized form of any asset, including securities
• Manage the lifecycle of digital assets, streamlining governance, investor relations, and portfolio management
• Issue tokens, manage cap tables, and compliantly address various governance needs and corporate actions
• Purchase tokens, view portfolios, understand exposures, and perform related actions

Codefi Payments

A platform to send, receive, and manage cryptocurrency payments and revenue within a single dashboard.

Codefi Payments facilitates seamless cryptocurrency payments based on invoices or recurring billing. The platform is designed to implement custom payment logic through a no-code interface which increases usability. Users will also have access to a variety of integration options, from widgets to APIs, that power existing e-commerce experiences.

Features

• Receive cryptocurrency payments based on invoices or recurring billing, see aggregated information at a glance, and export payment data into CSVs for on-the-fly reporting
• Design and implement custom payments logic, deployed using smart contracts built through an intuitive no-code interface
• Power existing eCommerce experiences through flexible integration options, from widgets to APIs

Codefi Networks

A suite of tools empowering anyone to utilize tokens and participate in decentralized networks.

Codefi Networks leverages the growth of public blockchain networks by launching consumer utility tokens and aggregating decentralized finance functionality. The suite of tools deploys new implementations of financial instruments for various sectors. Codefi Networks will support the adoption of digital assets as it becomes a mainstream asset class across retail and high net worth individuals, family offices, and pension funds. The new tool suite will enable regular individuals to benefit from financial innovations such as digital financial instruments.

Features

• Launch consumer utility tokens and aggregate Decentralized Finance functionality
• Deploy new implementations of financial instruments across different sectors
• Support adoption of digital assets as a mainstream asset class across retail and HNW individuals, family offices, and pension funds so that regular people can benefit from innovation in finance

Codefi Data

A data, analytics, and risk management engine for digital assets, public blockchain tokens, and their growing networks.

Codefi Data provides the individuals the tools to better understand their exposure with rigorous risk management, quantitative financial metrics, and blockchain analytics. The product suite improves investment decisions by providing credit, cyber, and capital markets risk analyses. Codefi Data also enables tracking the health of financial blockchains, including AML-related metrics across wallets and exchanges.

Features

• Understand exposure with rigorous risk management, quantitative finance metrics, and blockchain analytics
• Improve investment decisions by digging into credit, cyber, and capital markets risk
• Track the health of financial blockchains, including AML-related metrics across exchanges and wallets

Codefi Product Suite Capabilities

Leveraging the scale and reach of ConsenSys, Codefi can work with different organizational profiles — from large institutions and regulatory bodies, to digital security issuers and independent investment managers, to entrepreneurs building protocols for decentralized finance.

As the only blockchain provider to reach across both public networks and private permissioned blockchains, Codefi presents three projects demonstrating the breadth of its platform including:

• A land title tokenization pilot initiative with the UK Her Majesty’s Land Registry
• A real estate securities tokenization deployment for Mata Capital
• The launch of an open decentralized lending risk assessment methodology called the DeFi Score.

Enhancing Enterprises and Organizational Efficiency

ConsenSys collaborated with Her Majesty’s Land Registry (HMLR) to develop a proof of concept “Title Token.” This work has helped to inform HMLR’s Digital Street Project and its recent phase of research looking at tokenization. Consensys is a member of the open digital street community which is exploring how emerging technologies could bring improvement and innovation to the land registration process and the broader industry.

ConsenSys collaborated with HM Land Registry to showcase how property and investment ownership could be tracked and exchanged more seamlessly via tokenization. Teams from the two organizations collaborated ​to build the Title Token proof of concept, with ConsenSys providing technical advice on tokenization concepts.

Enabling Securities Tokenization and Improving Investor Access

French real estate fund management company, Mata Capital, sought to adopt blockchain technology to optimize the processing of securities registers for its real estate investment products. Mata Capital partnered with ConsenSys Codefi and Screeb Notaries to leverage blockchain technology to record and process some of its operations.

Codefi enabled Mata Capital to leverage blockchain technology to increase the speed and reduce the cost of issuance of digital securities. Codefi Assets provide greater levels of product customization and allowed access to a new class of investors.

Codefi enhanced fund administration, security, and cost-efficiency by enabling automated and real-time transactions. Finally, Codefi reduced information asymmetry between network participants, offering a “single source of truth” across the ecosystem.

Developing a Scoring Metric for Decentralized Finance Protocols

The rapid expansion of the defi movement throughout the Ethereum ecosystem has resulted in an unparalleled growth of crypto products for lending, borrowing, and other financial instruments.

Unfortunately, public awareness in DeFi often focuses on the potential for outsized returns while eschewing the new types of risk that accompany smart contract lending platforms.

Recognizing the various concerns Codefi has created DeFi Score, an open framework for evaluating defi protocols.

DeFi Score is a methodology for assessing risk in permissionless lending platforms.

We’re excited to release the DeFi score to promote understanding around the technical and financial risks impacting DeFi lending markets.

Future-Proofing Your Business

Codefi will future proof businesses by empowering financial and commercial companies and professionals to utilize blockchain technology to create more cost-efficient processes and new products that were previously impossible.

Codefi is designed to remove the technical complexity for commerce and finance institutions allowing existing professionals to easily leverage blockchain to create scarce assets, authenticate documents, or improve the reliability of agreed-upon processes. For instance, blockchain platforms have already proven the capability to digitize commodities trade finance transactions and provide a frictionless and paperless user experience. Industry-wide adoption is expected to reduce the cost base between 20–50% with the possibility of further improvement.

Additionally, smart contracts demonstrate the ability to reduce transactions and streamline operations. ConsenSys has partnered with consortiums and banks to built payments systems and tokenize fiat currencies. The World Bank, Santander, and Societe Generale have all issue bonds on Ethereum, or Ethereum derived blockchains. As these companies recognize the benefits of blockchain, financial institutions will become more comfortable with issuing securities, derivatives, and other financial products on blockchain platforms.

ConsenSys Codefi is excited for what the future holds for digital financial instruments, crypto payments, and other blockchain empowered tools. Codefi is committed to providing the best solutions for enterprises, startups, investors, and decentralized finance applications. If you want to learn more, please visit the ConsenSys Codefi website and follow us on our social channels.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author above do not necessarily represent the views of Consensys AG. ConsenSys is a decentralized community with ConsenSys Media being a platform for members to freely express their diverse ideas and perspectives. To learn more about ConsenSys and Ethereum, please visit our website.