A transaction with IKEA invoiced and paid with a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain
by Alexander Romero 
A transaction with IKEA invoiced and paid with a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain.
The press release announced the first transaction of this type involving billing with a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain but also the payment of the invoice with electronic money.
Nordic Store has purchased furniture from IKEA using Tradshift’s Smart Contract technology to establish the smart contract between Nordic Store and IKEA.
To make the invoice payment to IKEA, Nordic Store has used Monerium which is the world’s first and only licensed e-money provider for blockchains.
This event sets the beginning of national and international transactions with smart contracts, a method that should become more and more common and mainstream in order to simplify contracts, invoicing and payment between contractors.
Earlier this year, Monerium received permission to operate on the blockchain.
For this transaction with IKEA, the Icelandic krone was used, one of the many currencies supported by Monerium.
This transaction with IKEA, billing and payment were all made via smart contract and the Ethereum blockchain.
This has the advantage of reducing intermediaries, costs but especially time with paperwork related to a transaction of this type.
Stefan Árnason, CFO of IKEA in Iceland, said:
“A programmable financial supply chain, in which business partners can link information flows to cash flow through smart contracts, will transform the way vendors and customers interact.”
Gert Sylvest, Tradeshift Co-Founder and Managing Director of Tradeshift Frontiers said:
“We see smart invoices not just as useful for lowering administrative hurdles in business-to-business (B2B) cross-border transactions, but for building new financing models that makes it easier for enterprises to improve access to credit and improve cash flow.
That is why we have built the world’s first smart invoice and now settled it with licensed digital cash together with Monerium. This is an important step forward.”
If this contract and this payment were made and controlled via the Ethereum blockchain, the payment was made in electronic money and not yet in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin type BTC, XRP, LTC, etc …
On the other hand, Monerium is an electronic payment provider that is authorized and licensed to pay for smart contracts on blockchains, on the Ethereum blockchain in the case of this purchase of IKEA products by Nordic Store.
Monerium Managing Director Sveinn Valfells said:
“As the first company authorized to issue e-money on blockchains, we are delighted to demonstrate the benefits of blockchains for mainstream B2B transactions using a legal form of digital money,” said Sveinn Valfells, co-founder and CEO of Monerium.
“Unlike cryptocurrency which is volatile, e-money is a proven digital alternative to cash, regulated and redeemable on demand.
Using programmable e-money in smart contracts heralds a new category of payments.”
We should therefore witness more and more contracts, orders, purchases made and settled via smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain and other blockchains.
The purpose of blockchain technology or crypto currencies like Bitcoin BTC is to reduce intermediaries in transactions.
You establish a contract that you settle with the other party without using intermediaries in the process.
This is to reduce costs including speeding up procedures and settling contracts between parties who no longer have to wait for third parties.
The smart contract guarantees the contract clauses verifiable in real time on the blockchain where this smart contract took place.
We had recently mentioned the launch of Mybit Go, a DApp or decentralized application that allow people to fund and invest in assets on the Ethereum blockchain.
Everything is done via smart contracts, monitoring investment, the payment of revenue distribution to investors is done in DAI tokens directly through the blockchain.
Blockchain technology and smart contracts will therefore play an increasingly important role in B2B and B2C transactions in the future, and one day become the norm certainly.
