Hapag Lloyd and Vodafone have partnered with Deloitte to use a public blockchain solution for cargo identification and tracking.
In October, Deloitte announced KYX, a combination of know your customer, know your cargo and a specialist IoT device from Nexxiot that attaches to containers. The objective is to digitize supply chain assets. Nexxiot has clients in both the rail sector and maritime sector.
Separately, earlier this year Deloitte announced an identity collaboration with the KILT Protocol, a parachain on the Polkadot public blockchain. KILT is a self sovereign identity and credentials solution.
Coindesk reported that Hapag Lloyd would adopt the solution first followed by Vodafone. Hapag Lloyd confirmed the news to Ledger Insights. We reached out to Deloitte and Vodafone, but didn’t receive a response in time for publication.
Just like people, objects such as cargo containers need to be identified and have credentials. Hence, the Deloitte solution combines the Nexxiot and KILT offerings.
One of the drawbacks of public blockchains for corporations is the need to use cryptocurrency to pay gas or transaction fees. KILT’s founder, BTE BOTLabs Trusted Entity, allows enterprises to make a bank transfer to prepay for a large number of blockchain transactions.
Meanwhile, Hapag Lloyd has participated in multiple blockchain shipping consortia. That includes the defunct IBM/Maersk TradeLens initiative and Hong Kong-based GSBN where it is a current shareholder. It is also one of the signatories to the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) digitization commitment to ensure that 50% of containers have electronic bills of lading in five years and 100% in ten years.
Turning to Vodafone, it has a blockchain and IoT joint venture with Sumitomo, Digital Asset Broker (DAB). One of its first deployed solutions was for airline cargo pods.
Update: added confirmation of the news from Hapag Lloyd
