EY launches new blockchain solution to manage commercial contracts on Ethereum

EY has launched a new blockchain-based contract management tool, EY OpsChain Contract Manager (OCM), on the ethereum public chain. The OCM is designed to help companies execute complex agreements safely, efficiently and at a lower cost, the company ethereum” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>shared in a news release Wednesday.

As noted, OCM uses smart contracts on the public ethereum blockchain to automate contract execution and enforce agreed terms. It also uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to keep sensitive data private.

With the new solution, EY aims to eliminate the challenge of managing commercial agreements across numerous operational and technology divisions inside and outside organizations. Traditionally, managing complex contracts between different parties and systems can be slow, costly and error-prone.

Using EY OCM, companies can synchronize data with trading partners and consistently enforce key commercial terms, such as standardized pricing and volume discounts, the company noted. The solution is expected to create a secure and transparent environment for all parties involved.

According to the team, the EY solution can integrate with existing business systems through a standardized API, supporting a wide range of commercial contract types.

In other words, companies of all sizes can use OCM to manage various types of business contracts. Early adopters are currently testing the system with complex power purchase agreements that incorporate market prices and strike prices.

Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain Leader, highlights the efficiency of contract automation. He stated:

“We have identified from previous work with clients that contract automation can improve accuracy while reducing cycle times by more than 90% and overall contract administration costs by almost 40%. With our zero-knowledge privacy technology, we have industrialized this capability and can now realize these benefits at a fraction of the initial cost. Deploying on a public blockchain is not only cheaper, but also much more scalable, helping to enable many-to-many integrations on an open platform without any company having an unfair advantage in controlling the network.

The latest move follows EY's debut of a Nightfall beta in September 2021 in collaboration with Polygon. To become night is a privacy protocol that employs an Optimistic Zero-Knowledge Roll-Up to facilitate private transactions on ethereum.

Nightfall focuses on enabling private transactions for businesses on ethereum, addressing concerns such as network congestion and high transaction costs. Its primary use is to safeguard the privacy of transactions while benefiting from the security features of the public ethereum blockchain.