HONG KONG-based start-up 300cubits has suspended its container shipping cryptocurrency, as the industry enters 'crunch time' for freight-tech, reports London's Loadstar
HONG KONG-based start-up 300cubits has suspended its container shipping cryptocurrency, as the industry enters 'crunch time' for freight-tech, reports London's Loadstar. In 2017, the firm set out to solve container shipping's 'booking shortfall', a US$23 billion problem created by five million TEU of 'no show' and 'rolled' cargo every year.
By introducing a booking deposit in the form of the TEU token, a cryptocurrency based on the Ethereum blockchain network, 300cubits hoped to help eliminate the industry's 'trust issue'.
Trial shipments began in March 2018, but Johnson Leung the company's co-founder, said transaction volume had been 'far from commercial', despite participation from carriers Maersk, CMA CGM, MSC, and Cosco and shippers such as Li & Fung Logistics, BASF, JF Hillebrand and Esprit.
'Only a couple hundred containers have gone through the system,' Mr Leung said.
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