RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM and global shipping giant Maersk are forming a joint venture to utilize blockchain technology in an effort to improve international trade.

 

The JV, which was announced Tuesday, will be led by Michael White, a former president of Maersk Line in North America.

“Today, a vast amount of resources are wasted due to inefficient and error-prone manual processes. The pilots confirmed our expectations that, across the industry, there is considerable demand for efficiency gains and opportunities coming from streamlining and standardizing information flows using digital solutions. Our ambition is to apply these learnings to establish a fully open platform whereby all players in the global supply chain can participate and extract significant value. We look forward to further expanding our ecosystem of partners as we progress toward a global solution.”

According to Investopedia, “blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Each node (a computer connected to the network) gets a copy of the blockchain, which is downloaded automatically.”

Financial terms of the new venture were not disclosed. IBM and Maersk had been working jointly on supply chain projects ahead of Tuesday’s news.

In an interview, Marvin Eardly, Global Trade Digitization Leader for IBM Blockchain, promised an open platform. “We want to bring the industry together around an open and shared platform. We are looking at industry advisory board who will help shape the platform. They will provide guidance on how it should work. To make it accessible we will also drive open standards.”

According to the companies, the new firm will seek to digitize global supply chain technology with two “core capabilities:”

  • A shipping information pipeline will provide end-to-end supply chain visibility to enable all actors involved in managing a supply chain to securely and seamlessly exchange information about shipment events in real time.
  • Paperless Trade will digitize and automate paperwork filings by enabling end-users to securely submit, validate and approve documents across organizational boundaries, ultimately helping to reduce the time and cost for clearance and cargo movement. Blockchain-based smart contracts ensure all required approvals are in place, helping speed up approvals and reducing mistakes.