Smartlink Ties Up With CEA Research Center To Develop Novel Escrow Modules For Escrow Smart Contracts

The global eCommerce market ranks among the fastest-growing segment in today’s global economic ecosystem. While the transition from brick-and-mortar stores to online stores has played a critical role in this growth, the current transactional model that we rely on is ridden with inefficacies and loopholes. 

For instance, one of the gravest challenges in online transactions is economic fraud. According to recent data, customer fraud, cybercrime, and asset misappropriation are just a few types of fraud businesses have fallen victim to. Compared to the previous year, there has been a 10% increase in external fraud, such as fraud committed by suppliers, retailers, and corporate partnerships, accounting for 28% of total fraud in 2021.

Accordingly, the existing technological infrastructure will have to advance to reflect these evolving threat vectors to mitigate and overcome these issues. This is the point where blockchain technology harbors immense promise for users. 

Leveraging the features of the Tezos blockchain, Smartlink resolves this challenge for both buyers and sellers through its “Trust-as-a-service” escrow smart contract solution. These escrow smart contracts are designed to self-execute and release the funds upon fulfillment of all underlying terms, ensuring that “trust,” the most crucial element of commercial transactions, is maintained throughout the transaction lifecycle.

As part of its mission to deliver trust across the Web3 ecosystem, the Smartlink team has continuously developed, tested, and rolled out new features to its lineup of escrow smart contract modules. To ensure that these modules meet the market needs, Smartlink has now entered into a long-term partnership with France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). With this, the Smartlink team will collaborate with the CEA Research Institute team to build a range of decentralized escrow modules for digital and physical products.

The Smartlink team has been busy throughout the year, checking off significant milestones from their list. Earlier this year, the platform raised $3 million through private and public token sales. Smartlink’s first presale, launched with a soft cap of $500,000, was sold out in under two minutes. Likewise, the second phase of the public token sale also witnessed significant interest, helping the platform close the $2 million round within 48 hours.

Smartlink also launched the yield farming service on its DEX Vortex, further expanding its product range, which already includes an escrow smart contract solution, decentralized marketplace, DeFi, and staking. The launch goes hand in hand with the second edition of Vortex, v1.2, which features an ROI calculator, a native indexer, and robust analytical capabilities.

Developing Escrow Smart Contract Modules For Real-World Use

With Tezos, one of the highest-rated proof-of-stake blockchains, Smartlink has the infrastructure necessary for scalable applications, quick confirmations, and low gas costs. Tezos provides institutional-grade smart contracts with formal verification, making it an excellent choice for high-value transactions.

Although Smartlink has the infrastructure, building unique escrow mechanisms for each transaction model comes with its own degree of complexity. As such, the partnership with CEA will enable the Smartlink team to work with the CEA research team to identify the ideal framework for its escrow modules to function in real-world scenarios.

Ben Constanty, CEO and co-founder of Smartlink, stresses the need for trust in the evolving global financial ecosystem, noting,

“We’re developing a solution that bridges the current trust deficit in retail and commercial transactions using smart contracts, which is a huge undertaking. Having a partner like the CEA at our side provides us with industry expertise and experience to foresee all the potential approaches and challenges we need to address through our escrow solution.”

The first phase of the partnership will cover the escrow modules for digital products. Both teams have developed the first escrow implementation called Smartlink Locker, allowing users to create multiple vesting schedules for the community. The Smartlink Locker is one of the key milestones in Smartlink’s 2021 calendar, enabling any project to use it to vest tokens and create transparency with their community, advisors, and investors.

The second phase of the collaboration between CEA and Smartlink comprises developing escrow services for a wide range of digital products. The escrow module for digital products has already been rolled out, empowering users to escrow Tezos (XTZ) tokens, NFTs, synthetic assets, and perform OTC trades. Additional features will also be introduced gradually, such as conditional release and the next phase of adding modules for physical products.

Representatives of the CEA team highlighted the importance of trust in commercial transactions and how Smartlink can answer this problem for the global population, adding, “Smartlink ecosystem is the first to provide a full, non-custodial escrow service as well as a marketplace that allows users to exchange goods and services using cryptocurrencies.” 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.