- IOTA’s TWIN seeks to replace paper-dependent processes, unlocking up to $10 trillion in economic value while streamlining and decentralizing global trade operations.
- TWIN offers solutions like self-sovereign digital identifiers, asset tokenization, and on-chain financing to reduce trade costs by up to 25%.
The IOTA Foundation is at the forefront of introducing the Trade Worldwide Information Network (TWIN) Foundation, an innovative project aimed at revising traditional international trade processes. TWIN aims to digitize one of the world’s most complex and paper-dependent systems, releasing up to $10 trillion in economic value.
Closer Look At IOTA Foundation’s TWIN Initiative
The initiative arrives at a critical moment as it’s estimated that on any given day, there are 4 billion paper documents in circulation to facilitate trade flows in the world. The TWIN Foundation is a significant change to the old-fashioned, manual approach to the new automated and efficient service, as reported by CNF earlier.
The inability to make efficient operations in the trade has been one of the challenges that face economies across the world. Each cross-border transaction often involves the circulation of over 30 stakeholders, requiring 36 separate documents and nearly 240 duplicated copies, according to industry estimates. Here, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and emerging economies have faced the biggest hit, as it’s too costly to get through these hurdles.
Given that trade activities generate, on average, more than half of the world’s GDP, the TWIN Foundation enters the market as a not-for-profit alliance. It’s created to streamline, digitalize, and decentralize the whole trade system, according to the World Economic Forum’s latest report.
Further, the initiative has united a consortium of international partners such as the World Economic Forum, Tony Blair Institute, TradeMark Africa, and the IOTA Foundation. The Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade and the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation are also involved.
Dominik Schiener, the Co-Founder and Chairman of IOTA Foundation, mentioned his vision of the project through social media. He wrote: “Not just billions, but trillions in value will be unlocked through our trade initiative TWIN Foundation… IOTA is here to bring the real world onchain.”
Critical Features & Pros Associated With TWIN
The key elements of the TWIN strategy are self-sovereign digital identifiers of enterprises and governments, tokenization of assets, and on-chain financing without friction. TWIN is more dispersed, inclusive, transparent, and interoperable through using the open-source protocols and putting the focus on interoperability.
Such features will position the infrastructure to lower the cost of trade by up to 25%, according to World Economic Forum projections. Implications are dire in Africa, where intra-continental exports used to be 15% of the total trade in 2024.
Online services such as TWIN are the promise to support the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Thus, it will improve transparency, reduce bureaucracy, and increase integration of African markets.
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