Last year Dutch bank ABN AMRO collaborated with the Port of Rotterdam and Samsung SDS on a blockchain trade initiative, DELIVER. Today, the group announced they have successfully tracked and instantly financed a shipping container and the Proof of Concept (PoC) phase is complete. The entire journey was paperless and automated thanks to the distributed ledger technology (DLT) based solution.
Bills of lading, for instance, are documents which must be presented to unload the goods from the ship. Conventionally couriered by hand and subject to manual verification checks, delays of days at a time can be typical. Using blockchain to store and verify these documents is hence a current hot topic in the space.
Today’s announcement reveals that the delays could be a thing of the past. DELIVER, the blockchain logistics platform built for interoperability between Samsung’s Nexledger, Hyperledger Fabric, and Ethereum, made its first complete trial. The group sees this interoperability as a unique feature of DELIVER. The next phase will be a series of pilots where “the ultimate objective is to reach an open, independent and global platform that operates from the perspective of shippers.”
The three firms claim to have proven that DELIVER can manage the entire shipping process securely without the need for physical documents or lengthy verification checks. With DLT, an audit trail and trust in the authenticity of the documents is enabled.
It is likely no coincidence that the container made its way from Korea. Samsung SDS is working with the Korea Customs Service for another blockchain logistics project. Finishing its journey in the Netherlands, the container was traced from “door-to-door”.
The CIO at ABN AMRO, Edwin van Bommel, stated: “We are strongly committed to help our clients in their process to fully automate their trade flows. All parties involved in the trade flow will benefit from more effective controls, greater efficiency, transparency and traceability.”
As a trade finance bank, ABN AMRO has many clients in the shipping industry. This includes those involved in the oil trade, where the bank is an investor in blockchain platform VAKT. The initiative is closely linked with commodities trade finance blockchain komgo; both share seven backing firms, including ABN AMRO.
