A blockchain-based financial exchange launched last month, powered by technology developed in New Brunswick.

The company is Braveno (pronounced Bra-VEH-no), and its initial product is an exchange for trading Bitcoin (the so-called crypto-currency that can be traded directly between people) and Ethereum (which is a tool for smart contracts). Blockchain is an emerging digital platform being hailed as a game-changer.

The exchange is available just for these blockchain-based vehicles but the founders, who are spread around the world, have bold expansion plans for this product.

“There was always going to be a series of steps that we were after,” chief technology officer Trevor Bernard said in a recent interview in Fredericton.

“The first is crypto-currency and the next is foreign exchange. The big one we’re after is securities. Our big dream is to have an IPO (for Braveno shares) on our own platform.”

The concept of this exchange — in fact, of anything to do with blockchain — can be complicated. What’s just as interesting and easier to grasp is how Braveno came together with three founders playing three roles from three different continents.

Bernard is a technology ace who has been involved in three exits. Most recently, he was the CTO of UserEvents, the Fredericton company purchased by LiveOps of Redwood City, Calif. in 2014.

A few years ago, he was spending time on a tech website called ZeroMQ, and got to know a serial entrepreneur and crypto-currency specialist called Mathias Grønnebæk, a Dane living in Portugal. They began to discuss a blockchain-based financial exchange and soon Bernard wrote a white paper on the subject. Then Grønnebæk asked him to begin to work on developing such a beast.

They brought on board Grønnebæk’s friend, Kim Hansen, a fellow Dane who was soon to move to Australia. Then they hired Moncton-based security specialist Tom Robichaud to help Bernard build the product.

Grey Lit Matters Wins Fundica Event in Halifax

Given London’s strength in financial services, they incorporated the company in the UK and the team is now spread between New Brunswick, Portugal and Australia.

They’ve released a platform that uses blockchain as a means of trading financial instruments. Best known as the foundation of bitcoin, blockchain is high-security tool that allows users to transfer digital money (or other things) directly between one another and leave an indelible record of the transaction.

There are now a range of applications being developed using blockchain, and the Braveno team is aiming for a global, low-cost exchange that would be open to everybody. It’s free to use, for now, but will eventually draw revenue from each transaction.

By using Ethereum (a blockchain-based platform that distributes smart contracts), the team envisions an equity platform that could automatically pay its member companies dividends at the end of each quarter.

So far, the team members have funded the development from their own resources, but Bernard said eventually they’re going to have to raise money, whether in euros, pounds, dollars, bitcoin or whatever. They’re thinking about doing a small raise and then growing in the short term with revenues from the bitcoin and Ethereum exchange.

A seasoned coder, Bernard said he has found it challenging and fun to work with blockchain. “It’s very difficult,” he said. “It requires a special skillset to work with because . . . it’s very difficult to get things right.”

So does he regret getting into it?

“No. I naturally gravitate toward difficult problems. I’m just a stubborn person who likes to learn.”