Business, technology
and law, in one team.
More than thirty years of projects in finance (payments, securities settlement, stock-exchange orders, wealth management) and forty years of enterprise IT: integration, complex and resilient architectures. We put that experience to work on your blockchain projects, from the first scoping session to Probatis certification.
Three languages we speak fluently
A blockchain project in finance rarely fails for a single reason. It stumbles on a misunderstood business process, a fragile integration or a regulatory requirement found too late. We cover all three.
Financial business
Domestic and cross-border payments, securities settlement, routing and execution of stock-exchange orders, wealth management, custody. We know the processes, the cut-off times and what operations teams expect.
Technology
Integration of applications and financial messaging (SWIFT MT and ISO 20022, SEPA, FIX), highly available distributed architectures, security, monitoring. Forty years of critical systems in large organisations.
Law, through our partner
OMK Conseil, legal counsel, handles the legal questions (MiCA, DORA, EU AI Act, AML/CFT, Travel Rule, eIDAS 2, law of obligations) under its own liability. We submit our technical recommendations to it whenever they affect your liability.
Connecting the business need to the right technical choice
We work where your business, IT and compliance teams meet. The goal: a solution that holds up in production, that your operations understand and that your regulator accepts.
- I
Business scoping
Use cases, parties, flows, volumes, finality and timing requirements. What blockchain really brings to your case, and what it does not.
- II
Impact analysis
Effects on existing processes (payments, post-trade, account keeping), on accounting, internal controls and regulatory reporting.
- III
Target architecture
Choice of chain and governance model, key management, oracles, connection to your information system, resilience plan.
- IV
Specifications
Functional and non-functional requirements, smart-contract business rules, test scenarios and acceptance criteria.
- V
Delivery support
Vendor and provider selection, build follow-up, acceptance testing, go-live and audit readiness.
A decision file that management, IT and compliance can all read: compared options, risks, running costs and an implementation path.
What hands-on market practice has taught us
The crypto-asset market has its own rules: key custody, fragmented liquidity, MiCA requirements now in force. Working with these players helps us tell passing trends from what holds up in a regulated environment.
Crypto-asset service providers
MiCA authorisation, organisation, segregation of client assets, complaints handling, business continuity.
Stablecoins and tokens
E-money tokens (EMT), asset-referenced tokens (ART), utility tokens: reserves, redemption rights, holder information.
Custody
Hot and cold wallets, HSM and multi-party computation (MPC), signing procedures, proof of reserves.
Real-world asset tokenisation
Securities, funds, receivables: DLT Pilot Regime, choice of token standard, interplay with the central securities depository and transfer agent.
Public, permissioned or private blockchain?
There is no universal right answer. It depends on who must be able to read, write and validate, on the confidentiality required and on the kind of finality your counterparties expect.
| Criterion | Public | Permissioned / consortium | Private |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who validates | Any consensus participant | Approved consortium members | A single organisation |
| Confidentiality | Transactions visible to all; confidentiality must be built (encryption, zero-knowledge proofs) | Visibility limited to members, private channels possible | Full, under the operator's control |
| Finality and throughput | Probabilistic or economic depending on the chain; variable throughput, fluctuating fees | Fast, deterministic finality (BFT consensus) | High and controlled |
| Trust provided | Strong towards third parties: no one can rewrite history alone | Shared among identified members | Limited: close to a well-logged database |
| Compliance | Identification and Travel Rule handled at entry and exit points | Built into membership rules | Simple, but the value of blockchain must be shown |
| Examples | Ethereum, Polygon, Bitcoin, layer-2 networks | Hyperledger Besu, Hyperledger Fabric, Corda | Dedicated Besu or Fabric instance |
The right answer is often hybrid: processing on a permissioned chain, evidence anchored on a public chain. That is the model chosen for Probatis.
The technical building blocks we assess
"Blockchain" covers very different choices. We assess them against your performance, security and compliance constraints.
Consensus
Proof of work, proof of stake, BFT (IBFT, QBFT, Raft): security, finality and governance differ.
Token standards
ERC-20, ERC-721 and 1155, ERC-3643 for securities with holder eligibility checks.
Smart contracts
Language by platform, upgrade mechanisms, access control, testing and verification.
Layer 2
Optimistic or validity-proof rollups: costs, withdrawal delays, dependencies.
Oracles
Price and external data sources, manipulation resistance, redundancy.
Cross-chain bridges
Useful for interoperability but among the leading sources of incidents: use with full awareness.
Key management
HSM, MPC, multisignature, rotation and revocation, segregation of duties.
Identity and compliance
Verifiable identities, eligibility lists, address screening, Travel Rule data exchange.
Each flow calls for its own architecture
We start from the nature of your transactions and derive the architecture from it, not the other way round.
Payments and value transfer
- Watch points
- Finality, fees, Travel Rule, reconciliation with accounting.
- Common choices
- Stablecoin or e-money token; gateway to ISO 20022.
Settlement (DvP / PvP)
- Watch points
- Atomicity of both legs, settlement windows, settlement asset.
- Common choices
- Permissioned chain, atomic swap, DLT Pilot Regime.
Orders and trading
- Watch points
- Latency, fair execution, order confidentiality.
- Common choices
- Off-chain order book, on-chain settlement.
Issuance and securities life cycle
- Watch points
- Holder register, coupons and dividends, transfer restrictions.
- Common choices
- ERC-3643 tokens, register kept by the issuer or its agent.
Wealth management and custody
- Watch points
- Asset segregation, client reporting, DAC 8 information exchange.
- Common choices
- Regulated custody, consolidation of positions across chains.
Evidence anchoring
- Watch points
- Timestamping, integrity, evidential value in court.
- Common choices
- Hash on a public chain, data kept off-chain (Probatis model).
The applicable framework, in Europe
We track EU texts and their national application with our Monitoring tool. These are the main frameworks we build into our engagements.
European Union
- MiCA, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114
- DORA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2554
- EU AI Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
- Transfer of funds and Travel Rule, Regulation (EU) 2023/1113
- AML Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 and the AMLA authority
- DAC 8, Directive (EU) 2023/2226
- eIDAS 2, Regulation (EU) 2024/1183
- DLT Pilot Regime, Regulation (EU) 2022/858
- NIS 2, Directive (EU) 2022/2555; GDPR
This overview is indicative. Every engagement starts with an analysis of the texts that actually apply to your activity.
Probatis, evidence of your reliability
Once the architecture is in place, Probatis audits and certifies its structural reliability, using the framework designed with OMK Conseil.
Probatis Declarative
Guided self-certification, documents pre-checked by AI, an attestation anchored on-chain within days.
Audited certification
Scoping analysis, independent auditor, decision by a joint committee, levels A to D.
Ongoing follow-up
Continuous monitoring, re-certification and handling of major events.
Bringing blockchain into your information system
Blockchain is just one component. What matters is how it connects to everything else: accounting, core banking, messaging, security, monitoring.
IS connection
APIs, middleware, integration bus, connectors to core banking and ERP.
Financial messaging
Gateways between ISO 20022, SWIFT and on-chain events, automated reconciliation.
Security and keys
HSM, MPC, signing policies, segregation of duties and environments.
DORA resilience
ICT dependency mapping, resilience testing, business continuity, incident management.
Monitoring
Node and contract monitoring, alerting, evidential logging.
Data and reporting
Regulatory reports, DAC 8, proof of reserves, management dashboards.
Depending on your needs
We work on one-off assignments or over time, on our own or alongside your teams and providers.
Rapid diagnostic
A few days for a status review, major risks and priority recommendations.
Advisory engagement
Scoping, target architecture and decision file.
Project owner support
Steering, specifications, acceptance testing and go-live, alongside your teams.
Audit and certification
Probatis Declarative or audited certification, with annual follow-up.
How we work
- 1First conversation
- 2Scoping analysis
- 3Proposal
- 4Delivery
- 5Follow-up
Let's talk about your project
Create a client account to describe your project and talk to us in the messaging, or write to us directly.