Blockchain-Linked network for credit guarantee institutions
Credit guarantee institutions (CGIs) enhance access to financing for underserved borrowers by easing financial constraints acting as a third-party risk sharing. BLINK is a decentralized approach designed to align blockchain design features with CGIs' operational requirements. The solution is built upon two pillars: (i) a distributed storage system, namely a permanent, tamper-proof, and decentralized storage unit for information artifacts; and (ii) a programmable blockchain, enabling workflow automation while securely tracking execution in a non-modifiable, distributed transaction ledger. We design BLINK in two variants, depending on the application scenario: BLINK_private, which leverages private permissionless blockchains, and BLINK_public, which leverages public permissionless blockchains.
This GitHub repository provides the reference implementation of BLINK_public. The implementation is based upon MARTSIA.
For a detailed documentation and step-by-step tutorial to run this version locally, check out the Wiki.
Selected publications about BLINK follow.
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Journal article: BLINK: Blockchain-Linked Network for Credit Guarantee Institutions, published in Financial Innovation. This paper presents the complete BLINK solution in detail.
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Conference paper: Transforming Credit Guarantee Schemes with Distributed Ledger Technology, accepted at ICBTCAMBRIDGE'2024 and published with DOI 10.1007/978-3-031-67431-0_30. Slides: SlideShare. This paper outlines the overarching approach behind BLINK.
If you liked our approach, are using it as a building block of your tool or are considering it for your related work, feel free and welcome to cite our manuscript! Please find the BibTeX below for convenience:
@article{Leo2026,
title = {BLINK: Blockchain-Linked network for credit guarantee institutions},
volume = {12},
ISSN = {2199-4730},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40854-025-00880-y},
DOI = {10.1186/s40854-025-00880-y},
number = {1},
journal = {Financial Innovation},
publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
author = {Leo, Sabrina and Panetta, Ida Claudia and Delle Foglie, Andrea and Barbaro, Luca and Marangone, Edoardo and Di Ciccio, Claudio},
year = {2026},
month = {feb}
}