UK Startup to Help Businesses Adopt Blockchain

According to the latest reports, a UK startup called Omnitude is building a middleware that would allow businesses with traditional IT systems such as CMS, ERP or WMS to easily and quickly adopt Blockchain systems.

Currently, most traditional enterprises can’t easily integrate their systems with Blockchain based systems. The technicalities are too complicated. Additionally, the cost of investing is a completely new Blockchain based system means shelling out millions of dollars, which is something many companies just cannot afford.

According to Omnitude, they have solved this problem. The company states that it has developed technology that can be used to help businesses adopt Blockchain tech quickly and with little hassle using a plug-and-play type of middleware.

Omnitude’s Platform

Omnitude’s middleware has been developed on the Hyperledger Fabric, which is a broad open-source industry standard for distributed ledger technology. The Hyperledger was created by the Linux Foundation in 2015 and it promotes cross-industry collaboration of distributed ledgers.

Omnitude opted for the Hyperledger as it also offers a key advantage – the speed of transactions. The CEO of Omnitude, Chris Painter said that while the Ethereum blockchain can manage about 15 transactions per second, the Hyperledger can easily handle 3,500 transactions per second.

The First Steps

As the first step, Omnitude is planning to target e-commerce platforms for its middleware. This is because the software is able to fight fraud and make payments that much easier. And since e-commerce platforms and retail face huge issues related to the violation of intellectual property rights as well as counterfeiting, this is a perfect place for the company to make its mark and prove the worth of its middleware.

Currently, the European Commission estimates that counterfeiting has been to the tune of €627 million in 2016, and credit card fraud has been estimated to be at €1.8 billion. By using Omnitude’s middleware, merchants will be able to combat counterfeiting since the system would keep a record of all manufacturing origins as well as provenance. Additionally, the system’s single identity system will be able to fight cases of card-related fraud too.

Another advantage that Omnitude will be able to provide its customers is lower payment gateway costs. Right now, traditional payment gateway costs are to the tune of 2.9%. The company says it will be able to offer its customers lower costs, but hasn’t specified how much. The company will also give the added feature of users being able to exchange cryptocurrencies into fiats and vice versa.

Omnitude already raised $4.2 million in its first round of funding, and its ICO is currently ongoing, scheduled to close on April 25.