International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) and A.P. Moller-Maersk are teaming up to launch blockchain-based technology for the global shipping trade.
Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping firm, said the trading platform will speed up trade and save billions of dollars.
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The system will digitise the supply chain and allow users to track international cargo in real time.
The shipping industry has yet to catch up with the digital world, leaving companies buried in paperwork.
“The big thing that is missing from this industry to digitise and unleash the potential of the technology is really to create a form of utility that brings standards across the entire ecosystem,” Maersk’s chief commercial officer Vincent Clerc told Reuters.
The platform will use blockchain technology, used to power digital currency Bitcoin and for data sharing across a network of individual computers.
It will be made available to the shipping industry around mid-2018.