The online magazine Maritime Executive informed that a Hong Kong-based company called 300cubits intends to replace U.S dollars with a token soon to be launched on an open-source, public, blockchain-based platform.
The blockchain platform Ethereum runs smart contracts without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference. It acts as a distributed ledger and can become digital money too, but unlike bitcoin, Ethereum is highly programmable and therefore designed to accommodate the construction of complex applications.
“300cubits uses Ethereum to tackle problems in container shipping,” says co-founder Jonathan Lee. “The container shipping industry is a $150 billion industry, but it has been in constant distress since 2008. Unlike ticket booking in airlines, customers in container shipping do not bear any consequences for not showing up for bookings. Industry people complain about the lack of trust between liners and customers. We think the trust-free nature of Ethereum.”
300cubits plans to issue a token called TEU. These tokens will be use as booking deposits for container shipping where value could be lost if the customer does not turn up with a cargo or a container liner does not load a cargo according to a confirmed booking.
The TEU tokens will be linked to the value of actual freight rates. In the long term, Lee says the TEU tokens may become a defacto settlement crypto currency in container shipping, much like U.S. dollars. “We see the TEU tokens being adopted as a settlement currency for the container shipping industry, which could move the whole industry’s transactions or even the entire logistics industry’s transactions onto the blockchain.”
Lee also explained why the shipping industry will adopt the crypto-currency:
“Industry practitioners will be incentivized to use the TEU tokens because the tokens are given to them for free; they have this so called “ghost booking” issue to fix and their ownership of TEU tokens will appreciate if they use them,” says Lee. “Their recognition and day-to-day use of TEU tokens will further enhance the value of the tokens.”
Sources:
http://maritime-executive.com/article/blockchain-currency-ready-for-container-shipping?src=ilaw
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