Case study · Skuchain
How Skuchain turned one trade-finance monolith into three products on Optimism, with Exaflair engineers inside the team.
Skuchain needed senior blockchain and cloud engineers faster than it could hire them. Exaflair became that team and owned the build end to end — architecture, contracts and their audit, the apps, deployment and maintenance — delivering SecureTrade, Skucodes and Datarume with their contracts deployed on Optimism mainnet.
- SubjectSkuchain's TradFi platform and its engineering team
- Measure3 products, 3 contracts on Optimism mainnet (chain 10), 6 lifecycle states settled on‑chain
- BaselineOne monolithic application; hiring as the bottleneck
Proof, before you scroll
- PayPledge contract0x6504…BAcF2 · verified on Optimism mainnet(opens Optimism explorer)
- DatarumeManager (ERC‑1967 proxy)0x5D4E…Da119 · verified on Optimism mainnet(opens Optimism explorer)
- Skucode contract0x7dCB…52460 · deployed on Optimism mainnet(opens Optimism explorer)
- SecureTrade docssecuretrade-docs.skutron.com
- Datarume docsv1.0.0 stable
PayPledge lifecycle · selected state
- Draft
- Initiated
- Contingent
- Effective
- Discharging
- Discharged
Pick a state in the explorer under “What we built”; the result table follows it.
Swipe the screen sideways to see all of it.
Engagement
- Client
- Skuchain Inc.Enterprise blockchain for trade finance and supply chains.
- Sector
- Trade financeBuyers, sellers, underwriters and resolvers on cross‑border purchase orders.
- Exaflair's role
- The engineering teamSenior full‑stack blockchain engineers inside Skuchain's team, owning the complete build: architecture, smart contracts and their audit, the web apps, deployment and maintenance. The Next.js website too.
- Engagement
- OngoingExaflair engineers are still in the team, shipping on Skuchain's cadence.
- Networks
- Optimism + private EVMChain 10 for public operations; chain 600000 (PayPledge Network) for pledges, SAFE multi‑sig wallets and ERC‑3643 private tokens.
- Stack
In the client's words
Sunil Gopinath
Director of Engineering at Skuchain Inc.
during the engagement
during the engagement
“What stood out most was their ability to build cloud‑native architectures, and scaling with strong project management practices and clear stakeholder communication. They consistently brought clarity and momentum to every engagement. Self‑organized, and highly honest, they are people you can count on to follow through.”
Published testimonial, exaflair.com/portfolio/skuchain/case-study.
Context
A platform growing faster than the team could hire.
Skuchain builds trade‑finance software for enterprises: the buyers, sellers, underwriters and dispute resolvers behind cross‑border purchase orders. Its platform had grown as one application. Enterprise clients wanted features on a fixed cadence, and the engineers Skuchain needed, fluent in Solidity and in cloud infrastructure at the same time, are scarce and expensive to hire full‑time.
Exaflair's engagement shape for this: vetted senior engineers who join the client's team rather than a vendor that takes tickets.
Constraint
Re‑architect underneath a live product without slowing the roadmap.
Two things had to be true at once: features kept shipping to enterprise clients, and the monolith was decomposed into services that could take enterprise transaction volumes. No hand‑off to an outside vendor: the engineers had to work in Skuchain's repos, ceremonies and communication channels, and leave code and documentation Skuchain's own team can run.
- Talent shortageFull‑stack blockchain engineers with enterprise experience were hard to find and slow to hire.
- Time pressureEnterprise clients were waiting on features; the re‑architecture could not pause delivery.
What we built
A PayPledge that settles itself, and two more products on the same rails.
The centre of SecureTrade is the PayPledge: an ERC‑1155 pledge from a buyer to a seller, backed by collateral in a vault, with performance conditions and a named resolver. It moves through six states, and each transition is a contract call rather than a phone call. Step through a pledge below. The screen, the contract functions and the comparison table follow your selection.
PayPledge lifecycle explorer
Use ← → or click a state. Screens are from Skuchain's SecureTrade documentation, 13 Sep 2025.
Swipe the screen sideways to see all of it.
Sale Details, status Contingent. The seller sees the pending condition and the on‑chain timeline.
3 / 6
Contingent
- Who acts
- Seller accepts
- Network
- Private PayPledge Network (chain 600000)
- In the capture
- Memo: Submitting depositCollateral of 100 to PayPledge · Scott accepted the PayPledge
What happens
The seller accepts the pledge. Collateral is locked, the performance condition is attached, and the pledge is now contingent on the seller delivering. Everyone can read the same state from the chain.
Contract functions at this step
- accept
- addCondition
- conditions
- getConditionCount
Exaflair built
The acceptance and condition logic in the contract, and the timeline that reads its events back into this screen.
Exaflair built all of it: the contracts and their audit, the three apps, the infrastructure they run on, and the maintenance since. State names, actors and networks are from Skuchain's SecureTrade documentation; function names are from the PayPledge contract on Optimism. Brad, Scott and Dave are Skuchain's test users.
-
ERC‑1155 · Optimism + private network
SecureTrade
Three apps (Trader, Underwriter, Resolver) around the PayPledge: conditional settlement, collateral vaults, credit lines, dispute arbitration.
The SecureTrade documentation site. -
ERC‑1155 · Optimism
Skucodes
On‑chain SKU inventory: each unit a token with provenance, ownership and an audit trail; mint, convert and unwrap with role‑based access.
Skucode.sol, on Optimism mainnet.Skucodes runs from its contract on chain 10, compiled with Solidity 0.8.17.0x7dCB7F75A6210d0aE9445ecA2b4E075156A52460The contract is the published artefact. -
ERC‑721 · ERC‑1967 proxy · AWS
Datarume
Token‑gated data rooms for diligence documents: a Data NFT per room, Data Tokens for access, files in the client's own S3 bucket, every action logged on‑chain.
The Datarume documentation site, v1.0.0 stable.
What we did not build
Boundaries, so the credit lands where it belongs.
Skuchain owns the product, the trade‑finance domain rules and its client relationships. Exaflair built to that direction, not around it.
No new chain. The products run on Optimism and a private EVM network instead of a bespoke L1, which kept the surface area small and the explorers public.
No mobile apps and no redesign of Skuchain's brand; the work is the platform, the contracts and the web apps that operate them.
Result
What can be checked today.
- 3products built end to endSecureTrade, Skucodes and Datarume, design through deployment
- 3contracts on Optimism mainnetPayPledge, DatarumeManager (ERC‑1967 proxy) and Skucode, chain 10
- 6lifecycle states settled on‑chainDraft to Discharged, including dispute paths through the Resolver app
- 1named client testimonialSunil Gopinath, Director of Engineering at Skuchain during the engagement
- 60%less transaction processing timeThrough system‑wide optimisations
- 3×faster deliveryFeature development speed
- 70%cost reductionIn engineering expenses
- 99.9%platform uptimeEnterprise‑grade reliability
Before and after, per state
The row for the state you picked in the explorer is highlighted. “Before” is the typical paper flow for a trade of this kind, for orientation; it is not a description of Skuchain's earlier system.
| State | Typical paper flow | SecureTrade on‑chain |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Purchase order by email; terms restated in each party's own template. | Seller requests a PayPledge with amount, terms, condition and resolver in one form; the buyer gets a secure email link.referenceId · paymentTerms · disputeResolver |
| Initiated | Bank guarantee or letter of credit requested; days of back‑and‑forth. | Buyer deposits collateral to a vault and initiates the pledge; the underwriter is whitelisted on‑chain.initiate · depositCollateral |
| Contingent | Seller ships on trust that the paperwork holds. | Seller accepts; collateral locks and the performance condition is attached to the pledge.accept · addCondition |
| Effective | Delivery disputes go to lawyers; payment stalls. | Seller initiates fulfilment; the buyer can refute within a window; the Resolver app completes or cancels, and the due date is set from payment terms.initiateConditionFulfillment · completeConditionFulfillment |
| Discharging | Invoice chased; payment date drifts. | Buyer initiates discharge; the seller can refute; every step is a signed transaction with a memo in the timeline.initiateDischarge · cancelDischarge |
| Discharged | Reconciliation across two ledgers, weeks later. | Discharge completes in a prepare‑sign‑process sequence; collateral is released to the seller and both parties read the same final state.completeDischarge · dischargeAccounts |
Selected in the explorer: Contingent — collateral locked and the condition attached, in one accepted transaction.
Closing quote
“I would work with them again in a heartbeat.”
Sunil Gopinath, Director of Engineering at Skuchain Inc. during the engagement.
What's next