IOTA Endorsed By Sir Tony Blair

IOTA has made major strides over the past few years, transitioning from an IoT-only network to a thriving ecosystem that is impacting over a dozen industries.

Cryptocurrency network IOTA is expanding its horizons once again, this time setting its sights on global trade. Together with some of its partners, including the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation and the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, IOTA has launched the TWIN digital trade platform. Now, the network’s efforts are being recognized and endorsed by some of the world’s most influential people.

The latest endorsement comes from none other than Sir Tony Blair, who is throwing his support behind TWIN and IOTA’s efforts to "unlock Africa's trade potential."

TWIN (Trade Worldwide Information Network) is an evolution of the Trade and Logistics Information Pipeline (TLIP), IOTA’s longstanding project that has been transforming cross-border trade, starting with the East African nation of Kenya. As we reported recently, IOTA founder Dominik Schiener teased that TLIP would have some exciting new dApps for tokenizing real-world assets across Africa and Asia.

Commenting on the endorsement, Dominik described it as “a true testament to what we have built and the impact it will have on the world.”

TWIN targets emerging markets—hence why it started in Kenya—enabling them to easily meet compliance and regulatory demands across the entire value and supply chains. This translates into lower costs and more exports for these countries, ultimately growing the economy and improving the quality of life.

Dominik added:

With TWIN we are connecting the world in new ways, and are reducing barriers and removing friction to make it possible to trade and exchange assets more efficiently. This is one of the most serious project to date where governments are using public Blockchain-based solutions in production. Built on IOTA.

In his ringing endorsement via a blog post, Blair described TWIN as “an innovative digital infrastructure capable of streamlining trade with and within Africa’s borders.”

Blair is a former UK politician who served as the country’s Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. He is the second-longest-serving PM in post-war Britain after Margaret Thatcher. Since leaving office, he has been one of the world’s biggest symbols of change and development through the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

Blair says that TWIN allows African nations to build a “faster, cheaper and simpler” system that can support the full potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to eliminate trading barriers among African nations.

Blair added:

TWIN will modernise trade by replacing outdated, paper-based processes with secure, digital alternatives using distributed-ledger technology (DLT), developed by the IOTA Foundation.