Tokenization is a fascinating field and one of the topics of the future that VNTR, PostFinance’s innovation lab, is focusing on. It enables assets to be denominated electronically so that they can be traded as tokens via blockchain. VNTR is particularly interested in possible uses that could shape the investment and financing of the future. daura ag’s platform has been offering such opportunities since last summer. daura’s blockchain-based solution enables company share registers to be managed digitally and new digital shares and participation certificates to be issued by means of capital increases. The low marginal costs and the possibility of small denominations create an attractive basis on which to develop new kinds of employee participation and loyalty programmes with micro-shares.

Shares tokenized and capital increased at the click of a mouse: a successful proof of concept

VNTR has been liaising with daura since the public launch and conducted an ad-hoc proof-of-concept (PoC) test on the platform last summer. As part of this feasibility trial, the shares of two companies in which PostFinance is invested were tokenized. The companies in question were The link will open in a new window Ormera AG and The link will open in a new window Tilbago AG, for which a capital increase was also carried out via daura. PostFinance was registered as an investor on daura and now holds the shares in the companies as tokens. 

Available for business customers soon?

On the basis of the ad-hoc PoC, VNTR and its partner daura are now looking into the possibility that PostFinance could offer share register digitization to its business customers as a product in the future. The platform would enable them to simplify and speed up the management of the share register, the procurement of capital and share transfers. At present, these are complex, time-consuming tasks for small and medium-sized private limited companies.

Support on the road to the digital share

Until the end of April 2020, VNTR and trained PostFinance advisors will be supporting selected SME customers with the onboarding process on the daura platform and helping them to take their first steps towards using digital shares. The aim of this minimum viable product (MVP) is to verify customer needs in collaboration with daura and gather experience on the process. The process is iterative and extends over various phases. 

The daura community is growing and we are part of it

Partners, investors and issuers gathered at a community event in Zurich at the end of February. They heard a visionary talk on the subject of “digital assets” by Luka Müller, co-founder of daura and legal partner at MME, were given a first-hand account of the launch of the new daura website and came up with ideas for the further development of the daura platform during co-creation sessions. The daura community is growing every day and the next event at the end of 2020 is likely to make considerably more waves. 

Useful to know

The daura solution is based on the blockchain infrastructure that is jointly operated by Swiss Post and Swisscom. With this private blockchain, the data remains completely in Switzerland and the infrastructure meets stringent banking security standards. While the daura platform supports the processes necessary for a capital increase by digital means, the value rights can be saved securely, transparently for everyone involved and in such a way that they cannot be altered on the blockchain. This makes it possible to transfer the shares to the investor without an intermediary.