Concordium

Concordium is a privacy-focused blockchain for enterprises and governments, and the first project to have an innovative user identity layer built in at the protocol level. Based in Zug, Switzerland, Concordium utilises smart contracts and the cryptographic concept of zero-knowledge proofs, wherein users can verify that something is true without physically seeing the evidence.

Concordium’s mainnet launched in early 2021, with its incentivised testnet having already attracted plenty of interest. To date, it has raised 52M EUR, and partnered with Geely, a global automaker and co-owner of Volvo Cars, Volvo AB, and Daimler.

Established in 2018 and designed to integrate with existing financial and business systems that must authenticate users’ identities on a day-to-day basis, Concordium has been created to meet regulatory approval. While the data about network participants is anonymised on-chain, the platform retains the ability to revoke anonymity in a decentralised process only if requests are made by a legal authority. 

The platform’s native coin, CCD, is used for paying transaction fees, staking, and rewards for node operators, and as a collateral/settlement medium for Concordium’s DeFi landscape. The team consists of key leaders with significant experience that have both built and worked at some of the largest companies in the banking, finance, and crypto industry, and are now scaling the chain to their extensive network of the world’s biggest enterprises. 

The Concordium protocols can be divided into the following layers: 

The network layer consists of a peer-to-peer layer and a catchup layer. The peer-to-peer layer consists of a public, permissionless, high-speed protocol for broadcasting messages to all available nodes. 

The catchup layer sits between the peer-to-peer layer and the consensus layer and ensures that nodes receive all relevant messages.

The consensus layer ensures agreement on all transactions and their order in the ledger. The consensus layer has at its lowest level a proof-of-stake Nakamoto-style consensus blockchain that uses the longest chain rule. On top of the NSC blockchain is a fast BFT finality layer. On top of the finality layer is a sharding layer, which adds throughput.

Accounts and identities define how users’ identities are processed and used during the creation of new accounts. It specifies how identity providers and anonymity revokers interact with users to create identity objects and revoke the anonymity of users if validly ordered by a qualified authority.

The execution layer allows users to interact with the platform. Using the API, users can submit transactions, including, for example, transfers between user accounts and deployment and execution of smart contracts. 

Concordium’s mainnet launched in early 2021, with its incentivised testnet having already attracted plenty of interest. To date, it has raised 52M EUR, and partnered with Geely, a global automaker and co-owner of Volvo Cars, Volvo AB, and Daimler.

In August 2022, Concordium and PIatinum Egg announced the integration of its Web 3.0 game, CrossLink, with the Concordium Blockchain. 

According to the company’s website, “Concordium brings together world-class cryptographic researchers, outstanding software engineers, and business leaders with global enterprise experience across multiple disciplines and industries. Thanks to this unique mix of competencies and backgrounds, the women and men of Concordium together thrive to enable the bridge between science, development, and day-to-day usage.”

Concordium's vision is to end anonymity in the crypto industry. “This industry needs to realize that without trust and acceptance, there is nothing,” said Concordium chief executive Lone Fønss Schrøder. She added: “Global business is rules-based. The sooner the blockchain and crypto industry wakes up to the need to play by the rules, the sooner the full potential of blockchain will be realized.“ 

“Our architecture ensures that individuals can be held accountable for their actions if the need arises, but more importantly research has proven that the knowledge that their identity can be uncovered is enough to make people act more responsibly,” says Schrøder. “Knowing that our users may be asked to comply with regulation, has prompted us to build a unique solution which ensures greater trust, responsibility, and accountability – all due to our encrypted, authenticated identification framework”.

Concordium is a public-layer 1, science-backed blockchain designed to balance privacy with accountability through its ID layer. At the protocol level, an ID is assigned to every wallet, linking it to a verified real-world identity through a third-party ID provider. This ensures that individuals and companies can trust one another while maintaining privacy with zero-knowledge proofs. 

The secure transactions offered by Concordium have the potential to unlock a global economy worth trillions of dollars, generating interest from bankers and regulators who see the value in utilizing blockchain technology. For participants in decentralized finance (DeFi), metaverse environments, and gaming, knowing the true identity of others is essential for the widespread adoption of blockchain. The foundation of this trust lies in Concordium, making the dream of a global blockchain network a reality.