Everyone says they're speeding up trade. Most are just moving PDFs around behind a login wall. If you're looking for a real solution, not another platform to onboard your partners onto, these are the questions worth asking.
First, know what you're buying.
Most digital trade solutions are built around a platform. Shipping networks digitise bills of lading for carriers and forwarders. Multi-bank portals connect corporates with their banks to manage guarantees and letters of credit. Both do their job well, but the record lives on the platform, and so does everyone who needs to act on it.
The other approach puts the trust in the document itself. That's digital paper. It can be emailed, stored on your own systems, sent through any platform or saved on a USB stick. Wherever it goes, it still shows who controls it, what has changed and whether it's the original. That's how trace:original works.
1. Can you send documents to anyone, even if they're not on the same system?
Most providers need everyone involved to be signed up, integrated and onboarded. Some now let outsiders accept a transfer or view a certificate by email, but the original still lives on the platform.
That approach is fine for some, but that's not how trade works - and so that's not how we work, either. With Enigio, your documents are freely transferable. Anyone can receive, verify and pass them on, with no account, no subscription and no software. Only the issuer pays. Just like paper.
2. Is it locked into one document type?
Shipping networks were built for bills of lading. Bank portals were built for guarantees and letters of credit.
Enigio handles all of it: bills of lading, bills of exchange, promissory notes, bank guarantees, invoices, certificates and more.
You could even send your grandma's casserole recipe, if you wanted to. It's up to you. Start with whichever document matters most, so you're not stuck in pilot mode forever.
3. Does it actually meet global legal standards?
Legal certainty should come from the law, not from a platform rulebook every counterparty has to sign. At least, that's our view on it.
That's why trace:original is built for MLETR and UCC Article 12. It was the first solution verified as a reliable system by the ICC Digital Standards Initiative and the Digital Governance Council, and it's approved by the International Group of P&I Clubs for electronic bills of lading. If a counterparty still needs paper, a document can be changed to paper without losing its history.
Of course, how the law applies still depends on jurisdiction and document type, and we'll help you work that out.
4. What happens if the provider disappears?
If your platform holds your documents hostage, or disappears with them, that's a problem.
With Enigio, your documents live independently. The ledger that proves who holds each original is published openly and can be checked with open-source tools, whether we're around or not. Your documents are yours, not ours.
5. Can you start without rebuilding your tech stack?
Enigio fits into your current workflows. Start in your browser, connect via API when you're ready, or use it through the trade finance systems you already run.
Every document is a standard PDF with structured data sealed inside, so people can read it and systems can process it.
And if your counterparties already use another solution, that's fine. With trace:original, the document itself carries what is needed to function as a verifiable digital original. That means you can digitise your documents without requiring every customer, supplier, bank or other party in the transaction to adopt the same system.
6. Are you buying a platform, or choosing a long-term partner?
We're not here to sell you software and disappear. Our team brings real trade finance, legal and compliance expertise, and has worked alongside the likes of Lloyds Bank, J.P. Morgan, Societe Generale and Yapı Kredi to take digital documents from pilot to live transactions. So you can go beyond experimentation and actually get this done, easily and at scale.