Dear Community,

If you care about our company and/or the freight and logistics industry (which we really hope you do!), then this is the email you’ve been waiting for.

Because today, we have something extra special for you.

No, it’s not some announcement of an announcement about an announcement or any blockchain hype. It’s better. Much, much better–

Approximately two weeks ago, we fully launched our platform and have begun selling!

Our community of passionate freight and logistics leaders is the backbone of our company – and the reason why we are so excited about this news. We believe this could be the beginning of a significant shift in our space. And we are so excited to embark on this next chapter with you, our supporters, by our side.

First of all, WOW. Our team has been working around the clock to make this happen, and they deserve some major credit here.

Our incredible team of employees, across tech, product development, sales, biz dev, marketing, operations, etc. has been hard at work dreaming up, creating, testing, piloting, tweaking, marketing, and now beginning to sell access to our Track and Trace Platform.

“Almost two years ago with knowledge of the problems of the freight industry and some rough ideas of how to solve them, we’ve been able to plot, survey, and develop the systems we’ve now launched. It’s exciting to see our first steps into helping the industry publicly, from true intelligent freight document management to unified visibility, to a simple API that enables any development team in logistics to communicate directly with the blockchain itself. We’re proud to be a part of this new revolution, and are ready to help the freight and logistics industry step into a new era.” – John Monarch, CEO ShipChain

We’re very excited to have released our full platform. The Track and Trace system is the platform that we’ve promised all along and we couldn’t be more pleased about its functionality.

This is also the platform that we successfully completed a pilot and proof of concept on with Perdue Farms.

And now, we believe that we have the product that will drastically improve the industry for the better. And we’re super excited to begin selling it.

There are several other systems that we have developed which are also fully live and operational:

Axle – Our Hardware Gateway.

Transmission – The First REST API to interface with the Public Ethereum blockchain.

Engine – This is the driver of Transmission.

These supplementary systems that we’ve created have various functions here at ShipChain. Most importantly, they help us connect, interface, and bridge the gap to the physical world (with trucks, f.ex.) and also with the virtual world (the Ethereum blockchain). These systems are pivotal in allowing our main platform (the Track and Trace platform) to actually function and do what it needs to do.

SideChain – Our sidechain is undergoing early testing on Loom, to be launched shortly. See below for further information.

All in all, these systems allow us a lot of flexibility to customize solutions for companies in our target markets.

Companies ShipChain will look to work with:

Here are some types of companies we’ll be looking to work with:

Companies with large supply chains

Companies that ship temperature controlled goods of any kind

Companies tired of poor tracking and low visibility

Companies that have high rates of theft or fraud

Companies with supply chains that need to digitize an outdated system

Companies that need better visibility to reduce recalls

Trucking companies with fleets

Trucking companies, both asset-heavy and asset-light

Have a tip or lead? Email us at bizdev@shipchain.io.

What a whirlwind it has been. 2018 was full of progress and challenges, but we are so excited to have kicked off 2019 with one of our greatest achievements to date.

We are part of a tiny group of blockchain companies that has actually built a fully operational product and piloted it with a massive multi-billion dollar company. And now, we are beginning to sell it.

But that’s not all.

We recently wrapped on a launch event in Tokyo, Japan with the majority of our team.

You might wonder why we picked Tokyo.

Aside from being very forward-thinking regarding blockchain, and having the honor of the President of the Tokyo Chapter of the Government Blockchain Association speak to our team, Japan is high up on our priority list for international sales and expansion as are other parts of Asia. The two largest ports in the world are in Shanghai and Singapore.

As a company, we have to have an open mind and be willing to look at where the demand is for our platform. North America will continue to be the main focus for now; however, we have always prided ourselves on being a global company, and we are excited about the prospect of expanding into other parts of the world like Europe and Asia.

“Expanding our growth into Europe is high up on our list. We are currently in talks with several small and medium-sized enterprises across various verticals.” – Clinton Senkow, VP of Partnerships

Two Unique Pilots

We are currently working on two unique and exciting pilots. They involve wrapping trucks with the ShipChain logo and embedding sensors within the vehicles so that while truckers conduct their day to day shipments, ShipChain will concurrently have the ability to test our Track and Trace solution.

We are very excited about our truck wrapping project, not only for the pilots but for the unique branding opportunities.

This initiative was recently announced at our launch event, and pending final agreements we’ll be able to share the names of the companies and further details. There will also be photos and/or videos during the pilots, so stay tuned.

Blockchain and Sidechain Happenings

Outside development on our platform has also commenced. As part of our open source product offering, developers can build out the open source framework of ShipChain, and add additional layers and features.

Our sidechain with Loom is undergoing internal testing, and we are very excited to be building on Loom. Matt Campbell, Loom’s CEO, recently spoke to our team at our Japan launch event about their technology and why their platform is a perfect fit with ours. We will soon be releasing the footage from our launch event so be on the lookout for that on our YouTube page.

We have begun to release details regarding our score system that we will soon be sharing with you all as well. The system involves rewarding shippers, drivers and carriers further.

We have also officially announced that we are launching a 501© foundation. The idea of the foundation is to have a separate entity other than ShipChain, which is not governed by the management of the profit side of the company. The ShipChain Foundation 501© will then, therefore, be entirely decentralized.

What’s Ahead in 2019

Based on feedback from our Proof of Concepts/Pilots, we have decided to explore building out a Business Intelligence suite. The B.I. suite is in response to market conditions and demands with feedback that we have received. It’s always important to make sure that what we’re building is future proofed and provides the most value for our ultimate customers. We’ll continue to get feedback and expand upon our products and offerings with what our customers ask for, as long as it fits within our core competencies.

Upcoming Events

John Monarch will be speaking at MOVE London, February 12-13, 2019. John is speaking alongside executives from UPS, Airbus, Volkswagen, BMW, and government officials from numerous US and EU cities.

Long Term Goals

“Our long term vision is to be the underlying platform for every logistics transaction – maritime, air, truck, and rail. Beyond full containers and trucks, the move into LTL/LCL and parcel is on our roadmap. As logistics become more technology-based, having both truth and a system that can be trusted in such a massively fractured system is critical. From here moving on to a true predictive business intelligence platform, unlocking insight into your supply chain that would have required hundreds of hours of complicated analysis to save costs, fuel, and more.”– John Monarch, CEO

Bullet Point Recap: