Ernst & Young, a leading accounting firm, has introduced an enterprise contract management service that utilizes blockchain technology.
The service, called OpsChain Contract Manager, allows clients to place contracts on a public blockchain while ensuring the confidentiality of business information through zero-knowledge circuits. OpsChain is marketed as operating on Ethereum but uses Polygon’s proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain.
According to Paul Brody, who leads EY’s blockchain efforts, the distinction is important as Ernst & Young (EY) plans to eventually transition the underlying technology to Ethereum’s mainnet and further to layer 3 in an upcoming upgrade.
“Nightfall was developed on Ethereum and is deployed to Ethereum’s test network, but so far, EY’s industrial users have been drawn to Polygon for its low transaction costs,” revealed Brody, further explaining how Polygon’s network would be more beneficial compared to Ethereum’s.
Polygon’s lower transaction costs attract EY’s industrial clients. However, Brody, who previously helped develop IBM’s first blockchain initiative, asserts that the future of blockchain for business lies in public blockchains like Ethereum.
The concept of employing blockchain technology for business purposes is not anything new. During the initial phases of Bitcoin and blockchain development, organizations such as the Distributed Ledger Group emerged to explore how businesses could benefit from distributed ledger technology, frequently opting for private blockchains.
Brody criticizes private blockchains for their inability to offer true privacy, noting that all participants can still view all transactions, which could inadvertently reveal sensitive business data.
EY also developed Starlight, a zero-knowledge compiler that uses hashing techniques to enhance privacy for existing smart contracts. This approach allows businesses to manage contracts more securely and transparently, leveraging the infrastructure on public blockchains to reduce deployment costs.
