BuyCo.io, a decentralised commerce (dCommerce) marketplace, has announced a new form of collective purchasing using permissioned distributed ledgers and smart contracts. It allows groups of people and companies to self-organise and collectively purchase directly from suppliers in a truly peer-to-peer fashion.

The initiative eliminates most of the costs associated with centralised e-commerce like Amazon and Alibaba, freeing up to as much as 15% margin on cross-border trading & transactions. Blockchain News reported that unlike Amazon, BuyCo.io doesn’t retail goods itself, instead it is the creator and operator of code that connects suppliers quickly and efficiently to buyers.

“The buying process on BuyCo is fully automated, governed by innovative blockchain technology. That means that our users are in control of their data and actions, and everything happening on BuyCo can be publicly verified”, the website reads.

The company greatly enhances the efficiency of the world of ecommerce and procurement by lowering barriers to entry and offers a new form of digital commerce beyond traditional ecommerce.

“BuyCo.io gets buyers set-up in a matter of seconds, and the entire process from order processing, supplier management, governance, escrow and payment processing are all fully automated through smart contracts built on Ethereum blockchain technology,” said Founder Jamie Burke.

The platform is built on Uphold Connect, Uphold’s open API, and enables individuals and businesses to hold value in any of 25 currencies, convert money instantly at the mid-market rate and send money in any denomination or amount to anyone in the world, instantly and for free. The company is now raising further funds to commercially exploit and scale the opportunity as well as grow the senior management team.

BuyCo Services Ltd is a UK limited company financed by Outlier Ventures LLP and delivered through Outlier Ventures Ltd, a European Blockchain Venture Builder, in partnership with its blockchain centre of excellence Block Stars Ltd.