Earlier this year, a press release was published that revealed IKEA \u00a0\u2014 yes, the home furnishing giant known for its dirt-cheap meatballs and \u201cbuild it yourself\u201d product lineup \u2014 made use of Ethereum for a transaction. Per the release, an Icelandic branch of the Swedish furniture retailer has used \u201cTradeshift\u2019s platform and smart contracts\u201d built on the Ethereum blockchain to settle an invoice with Nordic Store.<\/p>\n
The CEO of IKEA’s Iceland branch remarked that a \u201cprogrammable financial<\/a> supply chain, where trading partners can connect information flows to money flows through smart contracts,\u201d will hereby revolutionize how customers and their suppliers interact with one another.<\/p>\n This was clearly a pilot transaction, though reports indicate that it was actually profitable, or rather, cheaper than traditional means.<\/p>\n Per a report<\/a> from CoinDesk published on Dec. 18th, the Tradeshift platform settled \u20ac1024 (US$1,141.78) and then \u20ac512, at a fixed fee cost of 17 cents and 16 cents, respectively. Thus, a dollar or two were saved on these transactions.<\/p>\n Sure, it’s not a lot of money to many people, but this shows that if done at a larger scale and if automated, Ethereum can work to drastically reduce the fees that companies have to pay when transacting with one another, allowing more capital to be put into more productive facets of a company, such as R&D.<\/p>\n Because Ethereum works, it should come as no surprise that large institutions, even in the world of traditional finance, are starting to adopt the technology.<\/p>\n Banco Santander, the largest bank in Spain and the 16th largest bank in the world, earlier this year issued the \u201cfirst end-to-end blockchain bond\u201d using Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens.<\/p>\n Another first from Santander: a #blockchain<\/a> bond that will exist on the blockchain until maturity. It allows automation that has potential to make capital markets more efficient, cheaper, faster and thus allow small companies more affordable access to finance. #oecdblockchain<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/uEinyxo39t<\/a><\/p>\n — Ana Bot\u00edn (@AnaBotin) September 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nEthereum<\/a> Adopted by Large Institutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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