Why we used blockchain to build Cygnetise
This blog was written by Cygnetise’s CEO Steve Pomfret.
Probably most of you don’t know what an Authorised Signatory List (ASL) is.
Simply put, ASL is a formal register of approved personnel with the powers to commit the authorising organisation to a binding agreement. This could include authorisations that are provided to banks, legal or customer agreements, invoices and purchase orders.
Company Secretaries or corporate secretariat are usually the ones in charge of creating, maintaining and distributing the lists (although, in larger organisations, this could be managed by various other areas). To this day, the process is still paper-based and manually-intensive: many organisations, in fact, waste thousands of man hours (and millions of dollars) on this task.
So we decided to build Cygnetise. Cygnetise is a decentralised platform built on the blockchain that makes the process of managing signatory lists efficient and secure. In just a few clicks (rather than hours), administrators can maintain and distribute such lists.
Moving to e-signatures?
How do you ensure your e-signatories are appropriately authorised?
Learn how Cygnetise complements the use of e-signatures
But why on the blockchain? … You must be wondering (we do get this question a lot), rather than using a more traditional, centralised database.
The answer is simple.
In these fast-changing times, we wanted to bring real digital transformation to global organisations and offer our users the top technology in terms of security and data ownership. Using a centralised database can expose the users’ data to the possible risk of being tampered with, damaged, or lost by the central admin and a lack of availability to share such data with whomever they wanted.
By building Cygnetise on the blockchain, we just wanted to aid the evolution of a manual process using the appropriate technology rather than revolutionise an industry or sector in one go.
When it comes to the benefits of using blockchain technology, these are massive:
You own your own data. Cygnetise does not own the database that the lists are held on. A decentralised network means that users themselves control access to their data (their lists in our case) and decide whether to provide or revoke access to view them for their counterparts at any time.
It’s Peer-to-Peer. Lists can be shared without needing to request permission from the central source/ admin. It effectively removes the need for a middle man.
No dependency on counterparts signing up to the platform. With Cygnetise, everyone can view a list when shared via PDF or dynamic link from a Cygnetise user, or even permitted directly via the application.
Full audit trail available. By using blockchain, users have an immutable, full audit trail of any amendments made to their signatory lists. What was changed, who changed it, and when it was changed can be easily viewed.
Enhanced security. By storing data across its network, the blockchain eliminates the risks that come with data being held centrally. A decentralised network lacks centralised points of vulnerability that computer hackers can exploit, so allows for better security.
You have remote and instant access to your data. With Cygnetise, you have complete data transparency as all your signature list data is kept in one place and you can access it at any time, from anywhere in the world.
For us at Cygnetise, it’s never been about the “blockchain” hype, but about progress and innovation, and how we can help organisations work smarter. I’m proud to say that in an era where everyone is talking about blockchain, we just do it.
To learn more about Cygnetise’s application and request a free demo, please get in touch here.