I’ve been following this project for a while. I start thinking the MTRc can grow a lot in the next years, ‘cause the network has a huge potential:
• The token value depends on network growth; basically, the MTRc is like a token to access the underlying network (made up of enterprises, third-party service providers and third-party developers). The greater the network value, the greater the MTRc value
• Network value growth is much higher than the growth in the number of its users (proportional to the square of the number of users; in figures, a 2x growth in users could lead to a 4x growth in network value, a 10x to 100x, a 50x to a 2,500x and so on)
• Growth in the number of users depends on its potential and on the adoption rate, and they both look big
• The potential number of users is huge (≈400Mln enterprises plus all the third party service providers / developers vs ≈15Mln Bitcoin wallet users, for example)
• The adoption rate can be big as it depends on the incentive to use the platform, on how long it takes to develop it and on how good they will in acquiring new users

Enterprises are incentivized to use the platform ‘cause it solves a real problem and it can really boost their revenues. The product is already available in beta so platform development is not supposed to take long. The team is very good: multicultural, multidisciplinary and they’re showing great marketing skills in the MTRc campaign so far.

I think it is a decentralized blockchain based platform for B2B. I guess that, in addition to buyers and sellers, also service providers and developers will interact on the platform for end-to-end trade services (logistics, insurance, tax, etc) or third party software solutions built on top of it >> less user acquisition & development costs for them

Hi - My understanding is that there's going to be an escrow handled by the smart contracts. Basically, according to the white paper:
1) The Buyer deposits funds into the smart contract which acts as an escrow agent.
2) Funds are locked in the smart contract until release conditions are met.
3) Funds are released to the Seller upon successful delivery in a specified time horizon.
4) Funds are released to the Buyer if no delivery occurs in a specified time horizon.

HTH

Yep! I think that currently the root of the problem lies in the lack of trust between counterparties who don’t know each other. The typical solution is a letter of credit or other bank guarantees, that is costly and that involves a daunting process. Typically:
- After negotiation, buyer and seller sign a contract.
- Buyer's bank supplies a credit letter to seller's bank, which guarantees seller will be paid whether certain conditions are met.
- Seller gives goods to a carrier and receives a bill of lading.
- Seller provides the bill of lading to its bank and receives the payment.
- Bank gives buyer the bill of lading, so that he can present it to carrier and receive goods.

My understanding is that the blockchain can really help here as smart contracts could be used to replace this time-consuming workflow process. And at a lower cost. How much could the process be sped up with a blockchain platform solution? And how much could a business save on average?

As far as I know, these are the estimates of the market size:
- The global e-Commerce market is worth US$7.7 trillion according to Statista.com (https://www.statista.com/study/44442/statista-report-b2b-e-commerce/ )
- 6.7 Tn by 2020 for the global B2B E-commerce market according to frost & Sullivan (http://www.frost.com/ma4e)
- The BIS Committee on the Global Financial System estimates that trade finance directly supports about one-third of global trade and that that, globally, a flow of some US$6.5–8 trillion of bank-intermediated trade finance was provided during 2011 (http://www.bis.org/publ/cgfs50.pdf)
HTH