The seaborne trade market may not be the most glamorous or popular market to the public but you might be surprised to know that it is a trillion-dollar industry, making it one of the most valuable verticals in the world today.

One of the more significant components of seaborne trade is the container shipping industry which makes up roughly 60% of the total trade value based on statistics in the year 2017.

The large figure is not a surprise as there are more than 27 million freight containers all over the world that are currently either in transit or waiting to be picked up and transported.

Due to the sheer size of the industry, it is inevitable for problems to exists and that is what the shipping container industry is facing right now. A worrying number of problems ranging from logistics to management systems are causing inefficiencies in the industry that is negatively affecting both companies and clients.

Perhaps the biggest problem of the industry is knowing where, when, and what a container’s status is at one time.

Estimates suggest that more than 5 million freight containers are being transported without proper real-time information tracking which leaves companies clueless as to where a container is or whether it contains anything at all!

These issues call for an extensive solution to plug the gaps in a massive industry that should have reached its full potential, or at least close to it if it were not for the problems plaguing the industry right now.

Luckily, several startups and companies have popped up in recent years to disrupt the shipping container industry in response to these issues and that is exactly what Blockshipping, a promising and potentially game-changing startup, is planning to do.

Introducing Blockshipping

Blockshipping is a blockchain startup that aims to revolutionize how processes are done in the container shipping industry thus eliminating most, if not all, of the problems affecting the industry today.

The Denmark-based company does this by introducing the Global Shared Container Platform (GSCP), a platform that is essentially a decentralized database of containers all around the world combined with a real-time tracking solution that accurately hones in on where a container currently is.

The GSCP platform will also drastically improve how payments and transactions between stakeholders are done as well as introducing a way for data insights to be monetized for extra revenue.

As the platform matures down the years, it aims to become the primary registry and leader in operational payments in the shipping container industry, with the team planning to register more than 16 million containers or 60% of the market total in a few years time.

With the GSCP platform, companies will finally be able to track containers globally in real-time with incredible accuracy while at the same time, reducing operational costs and inventories with the platform’s features.

Part of what makes Blockshipping strong in its vision is the platform’s extremely experienced team; the platform is led by Peter Ludvigsen, a seasoned entrepreneur with nearly 40 years of experience in the shipping industry which sums up the level of experience in the Blockshipping team.

How does Blockshipping work?

The GSCP platform will be of use to a variety of stakeholders in the industry which include carriers, beneficial cargo owners (BCOs), and terminal operators.

The blockchain is essentially a shared ledger where all data is transparent and decentralized and this model is applied to Blockshipping in terms of container inventories and financial settlements.

By doing so, companies will be able to track containers down in real-time and as smart contracts are used, payments and transactions are automatically executed once the terms of a trade are completed.

An example of a real-world use case of smart contracts is that they allow companies to automatically pay shipping companies only when they receive their products in time and if the delivery meets the pre-defined terms of the smart contract.

Another important aspect that Blockshipping is working on is to reduce and eventually completely remove the inefficiencies in handling empty containers which happen due to the lack of a trusted platform that handles the situation effectively.

Even if there are platforms to address the problem, the act of re-positioning containers is an extremely time-consuming and expensive task when you take in the size and weight of these containers.

To make things worse, containers are empty for more than half of its lifetime which makes empty container re-positioning unworthy for many carriers because of the large amount of money wasted on it which could be re-allocated to other resources.

That situation is bound to change with Blockshipping as the platform will integrate tried-and-tested solutions to make the process of handling empty containers much more effective via the greybox and street-turn techniques.

These two techniques have been proven theoretically and in practice as well to overcome the negatives of handling empty containers and thus, save carriers tons of money.

Smart ports and tracking sensors

Two features that separate Blockshipping away from the crowd is the utilization of smart ports and tracking sensors in the GSCP platform.

Blockshipping aims to further cut down carrier costs and more importantly, establish or replace existing ports with modern, digitized smart ports that allow carriers, transport companies, and other stakeholders in the industry to achieve a higher level of efficiency in communications and processes.

Traditional port community systems are often lagging behind in terms of technology which causes everything to be slow. For instance, customers very rarely receive real-time updates as these systems were not built to handle real-time updates in the first place.

With Blockshipping, all of that will change for the better. Smart ports will allow for things such as instant updates or process automation to happen as all equipment will be connected and able to communicate with each other which will be achieved via IoT networks.

Another unique feature of the GSCP platform is the use of tracking devices to track the real-time location and status of containers. This is in response to the situation today where containers are tracked poorly which leads to unwanted situations like stolen containers or bankruptcy from poor container management.

By putting sensors on containers, the chances of carriers losing track of their containers is cut down to virtually zero hence eliminating most, if not all, of the problems affecting them today.

Blockshipping also plans to digitize the CSC plate, a piece of metal that contains vital information on the container such as knowing if it fulfills safety requirements or its unique identification info.

The Blockshipping token sale

Blockshipping will be holding a token sale for the Container Crypto Coin (CCC) token which will be used to fund the development of the GSCP platform as well as acquiring software and frameworks to be integrated into the platform.

Holders of the CCC token will receive a portion of the gross revenue generated from transactions made on the platform. The CCC token also comes with the unique feature of allowing token holders to sell back their tokens to Blockshipping if they regret buying it although the process is subject to certain terms and conditions.

The team will also be exploring possibilities to implement the CCC token as a way to access the platform’s features and services in the future.

The Blockshipping also has another internal token, the Container Platform Token (CPT), that is pegged to the USD and is only available to participants of the GSCP platform e.g stakeholders.

Here are the details of the upcoming Blockshipping token sale:

Token name: CCC

Token base: Ethereum

Token supply: 50,000,000

Token sale duration: 14th May, 2018 – 14th June, 2018

Token sale target: $24,800,000

Token exchange rate: $0.62 = 1 CCC

Blockshipping’s Website

Blockshipping’s Whitepaper