Leading accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) has launched a new enterprise contract management service that leverages blockchain technology on Polygon’s proof-of-stake network. The service, called OpsChain Contract Manager, allows clients to store contracts on a public blockchain while keeping business information confidential through the use of zero-knowledge cryptography.
While OpsChain is marketed as an Ethereum solution, it currently operates on Polygon due to the blockchain’s lower transaction costs compared to Ethereum’s mainnet. However, EY plans to eventually transition the underlying technology to Ethereum itself and layer 3 protocols in future upgrades, according to Paul Brody, leader of EY’s blockchain initiatives.
“Nightfall was developed on Ethereum and is deployed to Ethereum’s test network, but so far, EY’s industrial users have been drawn to Polygon for its low transaction costs,” Brody explained, referring to the Nightfall privacy tool that OpsChain is built upon. Despite the initial deployment on Polygon, Brody affirmed EY’s view that public blockchains like Ethereum represent the future for enterprise blockchain adoption.
The concept of applying blockchain to business operations is not new, with early groups like the Distributed Ledger Group exploring use cases. However, Brody criticized private blockchains for failing to provide true privacy, since all participants can still view all transactions and potentially reveal sensitive data.
To enhance privacy, EY developed Starlight, a zero-knowledge compiler that uses cryptographic hashing techniques to obfuscate details of smart contracts. This approach enables businesses to manage contracts more transparently and securely on public blockchain infrastructure while reducing deployment costs.
With OpsChain and supporting tools, EY aims to bring the benefits of blockchain scalability, transparency and privacy to enterprise contract management at lower operating costs. The accounting giant’s embrace of public blockchain signals growing enterprise adoption of the technology.
