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Consulting firm Ernst & Young announced the launch of an Ethereum-based solution using zero-knowledge proofs to help facilitate complex contracts for private commercial clients. The firm stated on April 17 that the solution, named EY OpsChain Contract Manager (OCM), will assist private businesses in executing complex business agreements on time, confidentially, and cost-effectively.
Notable Move by a Renowned Firm
Ernst & Young mentioned that the types of contracts that could benefit from their Ethereum-based solution include purchase agreements, standard fee schedules, volume discounts, rebates, and usage pricing. The team chose the public blockchain Ethereum over a private network because it prevents one party from gaining a strategic advantage over another and reduces the risk of leaking sensitive business information.
Ernst & Young Global Blockchain Leader Paul Brody revealed that the firm established OCM after realizing from past client work that contract term accuracy could be improved and both cycle times and management costs could be reduced by approximately 90% and 40% respectively.
“Thanks to our zero-knowledge privacy technology, we have industrialized this capability and can now benefit from it at a much lower cost.”
The solution was introduced at the Ernst & Young Global Blockchain Summit on April 17. In a recent interview, former Grayscale executive Celisa Morin noted that TradFi institutions have been preferring public blockchain networks over private blockchain solutions in recent months, with BlackRock’s BUIDL being a textbook example of this shift.
Ernst & Young and the Blockchain Field
OCM has been in development since September 2021 when the accounting firm chose Polygon to help create its blockchain corporate product. In December 2021, Polygon assisted Ernst & Young in developing Nightfall, an Ethereum-based corporate solution for regulating private transactions. However, Polygon was not mentioned in the latest product information sheet for OCM.
Ernst & Young first began experimenting with ZK proofs solutions in April 2019 with the aim of creating a blockchain-based platform for auditing, tax, and transaction monitoring. Ethereum has long been the chain of choice for building upon. In late September, the firm announced a $1.4 billion investment in artificial intelligence technologies for its new EY.ai platform, aiming to help companies adopt AI through its in-house large language model EY AI EYQ.
