ZirconTech expands its presence in Latin America with new projects in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay and strengthens activities in North America, with emphasis on the Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco tech communities.
Here is a more in-depth overview of the work our team has spearheaded across the globe:
Chile
ZirconTech started Q1 2019 with increased traction in Latin America after participating in the December 2018 Labitconf in Santiago de Chile. The team joined its client, Koibanx, and nonprofit partner, BitGive headed by Connie Gallippi. During the conference, BitGive launched its donation platform for non-profit organizations.
In Chile, ZirconTech is developing partnerships with a variety of aiming to address local needs and bring innovative solutions to the banking, financial services, insurance, logistics, legal services and telecommunications sectors.
At the end of January 2019 ZirconTech participated in the Latam Blockchain Forum in Santiago de Chile. Attendees included key leaders from regional and global companies taking the lead in digital transformation through blockchain technology as well as government leaders seeking to foster blockchain innovation in Latin America. Our CTO, Alejandro Narancio presented before a crowd of over one hundred attendees on how to incorporate blockchain technology into the development of smart cities. One of our CTO’s main points was, “In smart cities many systems must be harmoniously integrated and if one system must adapt to assume a new reality, the rest must adapt to these changes automatically.”. This Forum addressed the potential that blockchain provides and how it can be applied in different industries. At ZirconTech we are committed to the fact that transparency, traceability, immutability, decentralized agreements all through blockchain technology are key to bringing about needed reform to the global financial system.
Our CTO was also recently covered by Decentralizados , a Chilean digital media covering blockchain initiatives. The Decentralizados team discussed our CTO’s work with an understanding of blockchain technology, the Internet of Things, and Smart City Technology in detail with ZirconTech.
ZirconTech additionally conducted blockchain awareness sessions at local banks to demonstrate how this innovative technology can be applied in the financial sector. One key area of focus the team address was blockchain applications that can be used by financial institutions to enhance the KYC (Know Your Customer) process.
ZirconTech has been developing partnerships with innovative blockchain companies in Chile who are thriving interesting solutions like Paradigma CrossCheck. The team is working to map this solution to regional use cases for the creation of distributed applications. This tool can coexist with traditional centralized applications, helping individuals and small businesses to grow independently in a decentralized economy. This platform integrates Bitcoin technology with Smart Contracts, IoT Devices and the Blockstack platform in one application (Dapp) CrossCheck which makes market access secure, agile and available to everyone.
The ZirconTech team has also focused on leveraging digital contracts for professional services in the payment process. The team has discussed the incorporation of digital contracts into the payment process with financial services institutions and startups. A key theme discussed is how to leverage existing technology and what would be needed to facilitate advancement in the future.
Overall, Chile is a hot market for blockchain technology. Key Chilean technologists and economists have narrowed in on the benefits of this emerging technology. Well-known Economists Aldo Lema and Kenneth Rogoff from Harvard University, and Beltrán de Ramón of the Central Bank of Chile have recently made statements on Blockchain Technology. Kennet Rogoff stated , “Governments cannot tolerate Bitcoin or Libra, unless all transactions are transparent.”.Beltrán de Ramón said that “cryptoactives resemble money, but they are not; they will be regulated by the central banks and their designs will be very different from Bitcoin.”. Additionally, the Governor of the Central Bank of Chile Mr. Mario Marcel discussed policy initiatives related to digital currencies. Companies are seeing the opportunity to take advantage of this rise in open source technologies and smartphone penetration in Chile.
ZirconTech Partners with Monax to Help Incorporate Blockchain Technology Into the Legal Sector
ZirconTech also formed a partnership with UK based Monax, aiming to incorporate blockchain technology into the legal sector.As a result of this partnership, ZirconTech has been able to showcase how digital contracting is facilitated with Monax platform and the Agreements Network . Lawyers don’t need to learn programming languages like Solidity to run smart contracts. With Monax and its BPM (Business Process Model) tool you can go directly to the business to solve real problems. We are finding that the running of simple professional services agreements through smart contracts is becoming a leading use case for blockchain technology.
ZirconTech Partners with Global Share to Implement Blockchain Technology in Electronic Bill of Lading Process
The ZirconTech Team has explored ways to implement blockchain technology in foreign trade. We most recently partnered with Global Share, a company dedicated to the continuous improvement of business processes, providing innovative solutions to companies to improve processes productivity. In April 2019, the company announced a major milestone in Global Share/edoxOnline history: the brand new development for the preparation, issuance, signing, transmission, negotiation and presentation of the electronic Bill of Lading (e-BL). ZirconTech has been a key partner implementing blockchain technology in the solution architecture of e-BL.
ZirconTech Collaborates with IBM to Implement Hyperledger Technology
ZirconTech continues to collaborate with IBM through leveraging and implementing the hyperledger framework for projects in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. With the development of the Tradelens platform through the Maersk and IBM partnership, ZirconTech has further resources to enable companies in the logistics ecosystem to leverage blockchain technology.
ZirconTech’s Developments in the United States
In May 2019, our team attended the Consensus conference in New York City, North America and Europe. In 2017, our team presented a Hyperledger based insurance product at the conference:
For close to three years we have partnered with teams in the Los Angeles area to support up and coming projects. One of our recent partnerships is in the area of real estate applications where we enable clients to incorporate blockchain technology into the traditional real estate investment process.
In April 2019 ZirconTech added a Business Development Consultant based in Philadelphia to the team. She is well connected with the US blockchain community. We have also strengthened relationships and discovered new business opportunities in different areas including, Silicon Valley, New York and Chicago. In October 2019, we added a second Business Development Consultant to the team. She is based in New York.
ZirconTech’s Work in the Agribusiness Sector
ZirconTech delved into the agribusiness sector. One of our clients in the agribusiness sector evolved piloting trading platforms, and completed trades with Thailand, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Cambodia, Switzerland and England. brings the transparency needed to the supply chain process. This greater level of transparency allows insurance partners to better assess and control risk to give users access to first class insurance coverage.
ZirconTech’s Work in the Financial Services Sector
In the Financial Services sector we have been a partner of R3 for over two years. Through this partnership, our team members have become Corda R3 Certified Developers. This is a relationship that started in New York and now has expanded to Latin America as R3 grows in the region. This year both companies participated in the Latam Blockchain Summit in Santiago de Chile. We have participated in several activities including New York like CordaU.com launch.
Argentina
ZirconTech has had roots in Argentina since the very beginning. We continue to maintain connections with the local community, participate in workshops and meetups, and looking for opportunities to assist projects in the country. We have had the privilege of participating in Uruguay business development activities in Argentina, representing the Information Technology sector, like Uruguay XXI and the Uruguayan Embassy in Argentina. We “Business Opportunities in Uruguay” meeting at the residence of the Uruguayan Ambassador in Argentina. During the meeting we were able to highlight the advantages of doing business with and in Uruguay.
Argentina is a hot spot for digital contracting. ZirconTech has been advising lawyers about the advantages of working with technologies like Monax. In this way there are several interesting cases being developed with innovative legal offices particularly in intellectual property management. Our some of our clients such as, Global Share, Koibanx and Bitgive, have carried out work in Argentina.
In July we participated in MITAGDS (Made in the Americas 2019, Global Digital Services Summit), organized by the Interamerican Development Bank under the Outsource2LAC program. We had the opportunity to interact with the Latin American community about the applications of blockchain technology in different industries. This has been a key milestone for further developments in the region. ZirconTech was one of the leading companies in Latin America participating in the event. Again, blockchain in supply chains was a hot topic, with discussions on the transformation public and private sectors can undergo to enable decentralization and transparency.. Blockchain technology can truly increase the efficiency and transparency of supply chains and the logistics industry, positively impacting everything from warehousing to delivery to payment. We discussed these topics with IADB, Gartner and companies from Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia. Mexico, United States and Canada.
Colombia
In Colombia, ZirconTech has developed partnerships in the financial services industries that helped to develop ground activities in cities including, Bogota, Medellin and Cali. Our team has presented financial services and legal tech solutions to several companies from the banking and legal sectors, and outsourcing service sector. The Blockchain Centre Colombia is taking off.
Uruguay
At home in Uruguay, the ZirconTech team continues to be involved at a local level in the Bitcoin and blockchain technology community. In May we took part in Montevideo´s Bitcon Day. This event aimed to educate the general public, on the basic concepts of cryptocurrencies, to specific information about the sale, investment, business uses and benefits for entrepreneurs and companies that want to leverage cryptocurrency. ZirconTech also took part in Campus Zonamérica’s (Jacksonville) series of Workshops for developers, and others for business professionals to enter the world of smart contracts and the application of blockchain for business, logistics and regulations. Other participating companies included Infuy, RSK, Keoken, dexFreight, Bitex.la, and Koibanx. This event opened new opportunities for ZirconTech in emerging blockchain applications in Uruguay, particularly logistics, foreign trade and traceability of products and digital contracts. Alejandro Narancio led a workshop on how to develop Smart Contracts on RSK, an area that he has been working extensively on this year. An area Alejandro has specifically worked on isRif Os. We discussed this work on a panel in the Montevideo Fintech Forum, back in June.
Our work in the legal sector is taking off as well. ZirconTech has pioneered the use of Monax technology live with “quick agreements” functionalities to launch labor and service contracts with his collaborators. This technology is expanding. We are specifically working with a local legal group to enhance the process for contracting labor and professional services, including automatic payments mechanisms. This is a joint partnership with the Monax team.
ZirconTech Enables Blockchain Technology Integration Into the Real Estate Sector
We are getting further involved in the real estate sector. We are leveraging our partnership with Monax to address key aspects of the real estate industry. As Monax CEO Casey Kuhlman states, “blockchain has the ability to take the real estate investment sequence and tokenize it. This can create partial ownership and increase liquidity significantly. Blockchain can also open up real estate investment trusts (REITs) to a new series of investors”.
Typically, real estate is an asset class that requires significant capital and is dominated by high-net-worth individuals. Tokenization allows for the reduction in the amount of capital any one individual would need, meaning more people would have the opportunity to invest. This would help diversify portfolios. It would also offer more liquidity in the ecosystem and the opportunity to move assets around more easily”
Zircon’s Work in the Traceability and Provenance of Goods.
Early on ZirconTech delved into improving the traceability of goods and transactions. We are continuing to do work to improve the traceability and provenance of goods through implementing blockchain technology.
Since 2016, when we first participated in the f Consensus Conference in New York, we have taken a close look at the Everledger project’s work on the traceability of diamonds. As the Everledger project has matured, we have looked at ways to implement this technology in Latin America. All framework and process developed by Everledger are available for use in matching use cases.
We have taken on more advanced cases aimed at incorporating the internet of things on a large scale. Since 2017 we have been in contact with the Crypto Valley community in Switzerland. We participated in the Blockchain Competition organized by Lakeside Partners AG with our insurance product. We demonstrated a Solidity mock up of cases for the dairy industry. Through this demo we were able to assist the Ambrosus team with solutions for decentralized IoT networks for the Next-Generation Supply Chains. These complex solutions are available for the right use cases for a variety of industries. Ambrosus has recently begin developing a new suite of solutions focused on dairy products in both Europe and South-East Asia, to enable individuals to understand where their dairy products originate.
We have also found that simple use cases can be addressed with the SUKU World platform, which aims to be the universal symbol of truth for consumers and brands, making commerce more transparent and efficient through the power of blockchain technology. We are evaluating how to this technology specifically for the agribusiness sector in Argentina, Chile and Peru.
With an increasing number of blockchain related platforms available, we see that we can quickly enable businesses to transform their services through digital transformation. , We believe it is faster and cheaper to reuse what is already developed, talk about real use cases and go to production when there’s value. In most cases there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
At ZirconTech, we are a group of blockchain consultants who aim to help organizations identify the potential of blockchain technology. Leveraging a market research, ZirconTech provides feasibility analysis for initiatives, analysis of relevant blockchain platforms and tools for a variety of business cases. From conceptualization to design and development, ZirconTech can build enterprise applications to help companies to accelerate time to market and maximize return on the investment.