Blockshipping, the Danish start-up aiming to develop the world’s first blockchain-based container registry, announced the start of its ICO (initial coin offering) on 15 April, 2018. During the ICO period the company plans to sell 40,000,000 Container Crypto Coins (CCC), which will serve as dividend tokens, at USD 0.62. Currently, the company invites all interested parties to join their pre-sale and get a 20% bonus on CCC purchase.
ICO has become extremely popular in 2016-2017 as an alternative funding model for start-up companies, which raised globally USD 5.6 bln through ICOs last year, thus surpassing the amount raised by traditional venture capital firms.
The project, for which Blockshipping is raising money, focuses on creating the Global Shared Container Platform (GSCP). Basically, this will be a registry of all 27 mln shipping containers based on the blockchain and sensor technologies, which will provide an efficient “greybox solution”, widely discussed in the container shipping industry over the past years. The platform will allow all industry players – carriers, freight forwarders, ports and terminals – to share containers and manage the global container fleet more efficiently, avoiding empty box repositioning, reducing the costs of new build containers and cutting the overall container fleet by 15%. In total, the company claims that the GSCP will enable a cost reduction of at least USD 5.7 bln per year for the industry, mostly for global carriers.
Blockshipping also outlines further savings for global terminal operators by introducing the concept of Smart Ports, “a connected community where carriers, trucking companies, BCOs, customs authorities and logistic eco-systems collaborate seamlessly within and across networks achieving higher operations efficiency and service levels”. This is planned to achieve by equipping containers with sensors that will provide their real-time position to all stakeholders.
According to the project’s roadmap, the development of release 1.0 is already under way, with the launch scheduled for Q1 2019.
The project is developed by a strong team headed by Peter Ludvigsen, CEO & Founder, ex- CIO for Maersk Line Europe Region, UASC, Ports America and INTTRA, and strengthened by leading Nordic lawyers and ICO experts within blockchain and smart contracts.
