On January 15th, PikcioChain, a secure blockchain-based exchange for personal data, hosted a webinar to announce its investment from the NEO Council and a switch from Ethereum to NEO. This announcement was one of the many strategic initiatives planned by PikcioChain, as it has since partnered with EY (formerly Ernst and Young), PricewaterhouseCoopers, Capgemini, and BNP Paribas. PikcioChain has also partnered with institutions in the public sector, including Praxiling, Epsylon lab, and the University of Montpellier, all of which are managed by the French government.

These strategic partnerships coincide with PikcioChain’s token sale, which is open until March 31st.

NEO

PikcioChain’s relationship with NEO started with its investment from the NEO Council, and the announcement by Didier Collin de Casubon, PikcioChain’s CEO, that it plans to open a subsidiary in China sometime in March 2018. This move to China was organized to expand PikcioChain’s service into the Eastern market, and will also help bridge Onchain Distributed Network Architecture (DNA), to the European Market.

EY

Some of PikcioChain’s most significant partnerships have been in the traditional business sector, one of which is with EY (formerly Ernst and Young). Ernst and Young is considered to be one of the “big four” accounting firms and has over 231,000 employees in over 700 offices across 150 countries. EY will work with PikcioChain to position the platform as the go-to solution when it comes to handling customer data. EY will also help bring PikcioChain into direct contact with new clients, as well as slots in speaking events to present the platform in front of decision-makers and other influencers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is PikcioChain’s second partnership with one of the big four accounting firms. PwC has a network of 223,000 employees in 743 offices, spread over 157 countries. PwC supplied critical funding and due diligence tasks to PikcioChain for token sales in Europe and Russia and consulted on specific parts of the whitepaper released by the platform. In addition to providing financial assistance and legal oversight, PwC also gave technical advice relating to the PKC smart contract before it was presented to their clients to raise funds from the token sale.

Capgemini

Capgemini is another trans-national giant in business consulting services. Capgemini is based in France and has 190,000 employees in over 40 countries. Alongside EY, Capgemini is integral to PikcioChain’s success. Both companies offer a vast client network for the platform to access. Capgemini plays a specific role in business support for PikcioChain, as well as working as a technical integrator between clients and the PKC smart contract. Capgemini allows for an international scaling of PikcioChain’s services that wouldn’t be possible otherwise

BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas is a French international banking group that has offices in over 75 countries. BNP Paribas is one of the largest banks in the world, with a net income attributable to €7,702 million. BNP is considered to be one of the leading wealth management service providers in the world. PikcioChain signed a contract with BNP to pilot the BNP Paribas Wealth Management service, led by the Suisse and Dubai offices of BNPP WM, which are are home to some of the wealthiest clients of the bank.

PikcioChain is building a KYC and data exchange solution for BNP, which is a complex endeavor due to the cross-ownership of funds, assets, and companies that need to comply with this law. With the present KYC laws, it’s required that clients keep a large number of documents and go through a stringent verification for each. PikcioChain claims that this KYC process is frustrating for many of their clients, and is the main reason for customer churn.

Using PikcioChain’s solution, clients will not need to provide their KYC repeatedly, as the verification of KYC data will be collected through different data sources that rest on smart contracts in the background, thus making the process less expensive and more user-friendly.

There are also two ongoing projects that PikcioChain is working with BNP Paribas. They are BNP Paribas Cetelem, a personal credit subsidiary, and BNP Cardiff insurance.

PikcioChain is building a mobile solution for KYC and information collection for Paribas Cetelem, as well as a chatbot that authenticates KYC documents, notably proof of residency and proof of revenue. This solution is integrated into BNP Paribas’s web application for personalized customer communication, allowing for a streamlined credit request process.

For BNP’s Cardiff insurance, Pikiochain is using the same KYC information collection technology for insured credit users, which allows for a faster and less expensive underwriting process. You can see a summary of this technology works in PikioChain’s whitepaper, page 25.

PikcioChain’s involvement with BNP Paribas is a signal that the business is growing at a steady rate, thanks to the ongoing success of the current projects.

P2Link

PikcioChain has also partnered with P2Link, which is a telemedicine provider. PikcioChain works with P2Link to connect their patient’s information from their home with P2Link caregivers, supplying a redundant network and trustable fallback for all data entries. In the healthcare sector these systems have to be 100% bulletproof and extensively stress tested, because in the worst case scenario, lives could depend on the free flow of data.

Praxiling, University of Montpellier and Epsylon lab

Praxiling and Epsylon lab form part of the Centre of national de la recherché Scientifique (CNRS), or the French National Centre for Scientific Research. The CNRS is one of the largest administrative research centers in France and is the most significant science agency in Europe. This collaboration between PikcioChain and its research partners will launch the Etrust (Econfiance in French) project in September 2018. The project is set to be supported through European funds for it to reach its goals. The Etrust project will run for 3 to 4 years with the aim of strengthening personal data usage and privacy protocols. On an individual level, the issue of digital identity is especially important, as well as protecting the privacy of one’s information.

The PikcioChain platform claims to protect customer’s privacy from its core, describing it as “privacy by design.” The platform will work with the Etrust project to create a seamless user experience from data creation, management, control, to sharing. Unlike social media that provides a static identity of one’s information, Etrust will give a tailored experience for each user, and provide a set of simple yet powerful tools that everyone can use while also making it user-friendly. PikcioChain plans to gain extensive insights into user behavior, experience, and ergonomics data.

PikcioChain Token Sale

In conjunction with all the above initiatives and partnerships, PikcioChain is also running a token sale until March 31st on the NEO blockchain. In total, there will be 30 million tokens minted, with one NEO equal to 150 PKC. PikcioChan will use the NEO NEP-5 token, and they are purchasable via the PikcioChain website.

Some of PikcioChain’s goals are to solve GDPR administrative problems for billion dollar industry clients and to make the KYC process faster and more accessible for large-scale enterprises. The project was in development for 3 years before launching its token sale and has a prototype ready to showcase its progress.

The project received support from accelerator programs like Techcode, Plug & Play, Digital Credit Union Fintech, and Fintech Pay. All of which provided its initial seed funding and technical oversight to ensure the success of the project.

PikcioChain has received numerous awards for its innovations in financial technology and competed in events like the F10 Fintech Challenge, La French Tech, 3D Fintech Challenge, International CES, FACC Innovation Awards, and the Grand Prix Banque of Innovation. PikcioChain performed well in all 6 of these events, earning finalist placements and the “One billion dollar pitch” run by the FrenchTech community.

To learn more about PikcioChain you can visit their website, Telegram or Medium.