A recent Bloomberg news story, “The Blockchain on the High Seas” by Matt Levine, looks at how the blockchain can revolutionize the global shipping industry. Blocktrain technology, which Bitcoin uses, is a list of digital records, or blocks, that are chained together using cryptography. Levine points out that most shipping companies use their own blockchain platform, or website to access real-time cargo tracking. But shipping companies would greatly benefit from a similar system that was an industry-wide consortium that shared a database via the blockchain, which Levine says would be “more secure and reliable and adaptable and trustworthy, and perhaps more likely to be used.”
https://cryptona.co/samsung-pilots-successfully-blockchain-app-s-koreas-shipping-industry/
We here at ClimateYou believe if the shipping industry can adopt a unified blockchain accounting system to track all shipments, the impact will be huge, bringing down costs, delivery and settlement times, and back-office employment. Getting all shipping companies to agree to use one system rather than each company maintaining its own is no easy task. However, it’s not impossible, given the recent agreement through the auspices of the International Maritime Organization to cut shipping industry emissions by 50% by 2050. A similar industry-wide compact for one blockchain accounting system would benefit all, reducing both development and maintenance costs, yet at the same time assuaging each company’s concerns about the safety and security of their proprietary data, so there’s at least a fair chance that one common system can be negotiated. Together, agreements on emissions and digitalized secure accounting will revolutionize the shipping industry, boost the global economy, and contribute to achievement of the Paris climate targets. Shipping is currently responsible for about 3% of emissions, but is projected to reach 15% as industry emissions go up if not constrained
