KoreConX launches digital validation platform KoreNodes on Blockchain

KoreConX launches KoreNodes in twenty three countries and five major regions around the world. KoreNodes are for trusted and regulated stakeholders to validate and record digital securities transactions on the KoreChain, a permissioned blockchain built on Hyperledger Fabric.

The KoreChain, a permissioned, enterprise-grade blockchain, ensures business validation and consensus of transactions amongst participants, recording the final transactions in an immutable, decentralized, and fail-safe distributed ledger.

“The way to really improve private capital markets is to connect-together the existing regulated entities that service this market, no matter their size or location, and streamline and standardize processes in much the same way that broker-dealers have connected into stock exchanges, ATSs, clearing organizations and other entities,” said David Weild, “Father” of the Jobs Act, former Vice Chairman of NASDAQ, and Founder of Weild & Co. “We need regulated professionals to work together in a system to create a broader ecosystem that they trust, in order to simplify execution, compliance, and distribution while reducing direct and indirect costs.”

Michael Nall, Founder of the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors, said, "Small to medium private companies worldwide, to grow or transfer an ownership interest, need cost-effective and timely access to capital and supporting professionals that they can trust. Moreover, these private companies are best served by the personalized attention and focus from specialists who are best positioned to collaborate with similar professionals in other jurisdictions. The tokenization of securities on a permissioned blockchain in an Infrastructure of Trust is the catalyst that will revolutionize this fragmented ecosystem."

KoreNodes are a mechanism for regulated entities to participate in the KoreChain. Only entities that are regulated in at least one jurisdiction are allowed to operate KoreNodes. Moreover, each KoreNode owner endorses only those transactions for which the operator is responsible and has regulatory accountability. All transactions are required to be fully compliant with securities regulation and company law in various jurisdictions, and KoreNodes help ensure there is strong governance over securities transactions.

"As trusted business counsel, our clients look to us to protect them and help them navigate through the labyrinthine securities regulations and corporate law. Conducting business with other parties who belong to the Infrastructure of Trust and use immutable digital securities on the KoreNodes enhances confidence for everyone," said Anessa Allen Santos, Managing Attorney, Intellilaw.

The KoreChain does not circumvent regulations or disintermediate any of the regulated entities in the private capital markets. "Investors need reliable and credible information about opportunities in the private capital markets,” said Sara Hanks, CEO of CrowdCheck. “Corporate due diligence reports that are powerful and easy to understand are one of the most important weapons against fraud that we offer. When the supporting information and other participating entities are also connected through KoreNodes in the Infrastructure of Trust, the investors are protected even more and in multiple ways. We are eager to tap into this community of trust that ultimately benefits not only investors but all the other participants.”

“Everyone has revolutionary ideas for disrupting capital markets. But disruption should not cause loss of confidence or open the door to fraud,” said Rick Klink, Managing Director, Finplex. “The Infrastructure of Trust where only regulated entities can participate is a welcome revolution where governance mechanisms exist for the protection of investors and ensure full compliance while excluding no one.”

“We will be rolling out our KoreNodes to over 375 KorePartners we have worldwide. This is only the starting point for us,” said Jason Futko, Co-Founder of KoreConX, Global Ecosystem. “We are inviting the world capital markets participants to join this ecosystem, and we are not going to exclude anyone who meets the standards, no matter their size or jurisdiction. It is time to really make a change.”

A KoreNode is the fundamental way to participate in the Infrastructure of Trust. Each KoreNode consists of the physical infrastructure that runs the blockchain code, the chaincode (smart contracts), and the governance mechanisms.

Kevin Saunders, Partner, Non Correlated Capital, said, "This Infrastructure of Trust is exactly the solution our industry needs. This is going to transform how I can help my clients access capital worldwide and work with other broker-dealers, law firms, secondary markets, and investors. This is a Game Changer for my business.”

KoreNodes are hosted in global hosting facilities from leading Cloud providers such as IBM, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Digital Ocean. These industrial-strength Cloud environments provide highly secure, highly available, fault tolerant environments, with automated recovery and backup.

“An effort of this magnitude can only start with careful attention to the needs of the private capital markets ecosystem,” said Dr. Kiran Garimella, Chief Scientist and CTO, KoreConX. “This was possible due to the feedback and encouragement from our KorePartners, leading academics, and scientists. The business architecture drove all our technology decisions. This is very exciting for us and our KorePartners as we are poised to rapidly implement numerous other processes to fully achieve the vision of the Infrastructure of Trust.”

Each KoreNode maintains a copy of the distributed ledger of securities transactions. Access to data is available only to regulated entities and only to those transactions in which they are involved, either as parties or for governance. KoreNodes implement strict privacy rules.

"KoreConX has a knowledgeable and dedicated team and we are excited at the progress they are making,” said Bobby Brantly, Merj Exchange. “MERJ and KoreConX share the same mission, to narrow the gap between public and private capital markets. We look forward to integrating with the impressive network of companies, investors and service providers that they have built upon their application layer."

“Including regulated entities and law firms in the Infrastructure of Trust through KoreNodes is a key part of strengthening the trust needed in private capital markets. More trusted, fluid, private capital markets can help companies achieve their goals faster,” said Michael Bacina, Partner, Piper Alderman Blockchain and Fintech Group.

KorePartners, who are also regulated entities, become KoreNode operators. They are a key part of the Infrastructure of Trust, where they get to influence the creation of new digital financial instruments and new functionality of the KoreChain. They will be able to integrate their internal systems to facilitate fluidity in the markets and have access to special insight reports as and when available.

According to George O’Krepkie, CEO, AX Trading, “The emergence of blockchain has rejuvenated the private capital markets to the point where we are going to see a true transformation. What many did not realize is that we needed an infrastructure that would bring everyone together, so we can have a seamless ecosystem to bring companies to secondary markets and to provide liquidity to investors.”

Finally, KoreNodes will function as a mutually supportive and collaborative ecosystem. CEO of Libra Project, Hans Fraikin, said, “As entrepreneurs, we face many challenges. We need to trust capital market applications and our service providers. We became KoreConX clients and adopted the entire suite of features and their digital securities protocol because we knew that what they were accomplishing was to bring the world closer to companies like us. We are the benefactors of this Infrastructure of Trust.”

“I spent nearly a decade with a Canadian Securities Regulator, and in all my years then and even now, I have not seen any participant voluntarily giving regulators access to information in real-time, unless it is to meet a regulator's mandate,” said Jonathan Heyman, Director of Compliance at KoreConX and formerly with the Ontario Stock Exchange. “This move with KoreNodes is ground breaking and is the reverse of what regulators around the world are accustomed to. In this new digital era, it's necessary, and our strategy is to invite everyone to our Infrastructure of Trust, including the Securities Regulators.”