Welcome to the eighth edition of Commodities in Focus (CIF); our bulletin for clients engaged in the production, trading, carriage, storage and financing of commodities.

In the space of a few short months, COVID-19 has come to dominate every aspect of daily life for people across the globe. Remote working has become the norm, our social lives are virtual (or virtually non-existent) and people are having to grapple with the far-reaching economic consequences of this pandemic. Against this backdrop, we have taken the decision to make this edition a corona-free zone. Whilst reading this publication might not be everyone’s idea of respite, we thought our readers might appreciate a brief escape to normality! 

This edition is the first of two that will look at themes for the coming decade. Here, our focus is on smart contracts and cryptoassets. For the opening article, we welcome guest authors Roar Adland and Haiying Jia of the Norwegian School of Economics. Together with our own Haris Zografakis, they look at the potential emergence of truly smart contracts in international trade.

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