We will be undergoing planned maintenance on January 16th, 2026 at 1:00pm UTC. Please make sure to save your work.

SigGraph

Smart-contract-based lending with decentralized ecommerce: automated, transparent, and ethical.

Comment

Project Story: SigGraph

Inspiration

We started with a simple but powerful observation: trust is the most valuable—and most fragile—commodity in modern commerce. Consumers, regulators, and investors increasingly demand proof of ethical and sustainable practices, yet supply chains remain opaque black boxes. We were inspired to build a new kind of infrastructure that could turn transparency from a buzzword into a verifiable, data-driven asset.

What it does

SigGraph is a decentralized commerce platform built on a permissioned blockchain. At its core, it provides immutable, whole-chain traceability for products, from source to sale, paired with cryptocurrency payments.

We quickly realized that this foundation of verified data unlocks a far more powerful application: trust-driven lending. Our platform extends into a financial module where lenders can offer capital with unprecedented security and alignment. Features include:

  • Programmable disbursements (e.g., funds released only for certified sustainable goods)
  • Automatic repayment upon sale
  • Transparent access to verified financial and ESG metrics from a borrower's operations.

How we built it

We engineered SigGraph on Hyperledger Fabric, selected as our enterprise-grade, permissioned blockchain backbone for its performance, scalability, and granular governance controls—essential for trusted business consortia. Smart contracts (chaincode) automate our core business logic, including product traceability, verified data exchange, and the entire lending lifecycle.

To resolve the inherent tension between transparency and privacy, we implemented encryption and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), allowing participants to validate transactions and compliance without exposing sensitive commercial data.

For financial functionality, we architected a secure digital token system. While direct cryptocurrency payments are on the roadmap, our current model enables users to seamlessly top up a platform token via banking APIs. These fiat funds are custodied by trusted, regulated members within our network. The digital token then powers all on-platform value transfer—for payments, lending, investing, or withdrawals. Our design is future-proof, with support for integrating stablecoins or CBDCs held on other blockchains, ensuring interoperability and flexibility.

Challenges we ran into

Our journey was defined by three significant hurdles beyond pure technical build:

  1. Adoption Friction: Convincing suppliers and brands to integrate their operational data was our first major challenge. It required demonstrating clear, tangible ROI to offset the perceived effort of onboarding.
  2. Navigating a Complex Regulatory Landscape: We had to concurrently navigate the stringent regulatory frameworks governing e-commerce marketplaces and the evolving, uncertain landscape of digital tokens and blockchain-based assets. Ensuring compliance added substantial layers of complexity to our design.
  3. Overcoming Blockchain Skepticism: We consistently encountered doubts from potential partners, fueled by blockchain's association with volatility and speculation ("blockchain infamy") and confusion due to the technology's inherent complexity. Our task became not just building a platform, but actively educating and reframing the narrative around enterprise-grade, permissioned blockchain utility.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  1. Successfully building a working MVP of a decentralized ecommerce marketplace. This achievement goes beyond a simple proof-of-concept. We established a functional, permissioned network on Hyperledger Fabric with real traceability logic, proving that a consortium-based, transparent marketplace is not only viable but operational.
  2. Demonstrating the direct, practical link between verifiable traceability and financial innovation. Our core breakthrough is showing that immutable supply chain data can be a powerful financial asset and cryptocurrency can be used as programmable money to power programmable lending, automatic repayments, and ESG verification. We've created a blueprint for how transparency fundamentally de-risks and revolutionizes trade finance.

What we learned

The most profound insight from building SigGraph was realizing that immutable traceability data is not an endpoint—it's the foundation for a new financial paradigm.

We learned that by creating a verifiable, end-to-end record of commerce, we had inadvertently built the most reliable form of collateral: real-world, real-time asset provenance and sales performance. This shifted our perspective from seeing our product as a supply-chain tool to recognizing it as a trust infrastructure for finance.

Specifically, we learned:

  • Data as Collateral: Physical goods with transparent histories and predictable sales channels can be reliably financially leveraged.
  • Automation is Key: Smart contracts don't just record data; they can execute complex financial agreements (disbursement, repayment) with near-zero overhead, reducing risk and cost.
  • New Risk Models: Lending decisions can move beyond credit scores to include verifiable ESG compliance, supplier reliability, and real-time cash flow visibility.

This discovery revealed that our core technology has applications far beyond our initial scope, opening doors to innovative use cases in inventory financing, impact investing, sustainable supply chain incentives, and fractional asset ownership.

What's next for SigGraph

Our immediate next step is to run targeted pilot programs with sustainable agri-businesses and impact investors to refine the lending module with real-world data. Following that, we plan to develop a broader suite of DeFi-inspired financial products—like transparent insurance and working capital pools—all powered by our traceability data. Our long-term vision is to establish SigGraph as the foundational protocol for verifiable, ethical commerce and its associated financial ecosystem.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates