DANISH shipping giant Maersk and tech provider IBM are grappling with TradeLens, their distributed ledger scheme, an attempt to put block chain technology to work linking carriers to the system they control.
But they cannot get enough ocean carriers to join because joiners want a measure of equality the founding firms refuse, reports New York's CoinDesk that specialises in blockchain and Bitcoin news.
Ten months ago, the project was spun off from Maersk into a joint venture with IBM. But in that time, the network has only recruited Singapore's Pacific International Lines (PIL), one of eight shipping lines in Asia.
The platform is designed such that Maersk's rivals will act as 'trust anchors' and run full blockchain nodes on the network. Moreover, large shippers of goods use multiple carriers and freight-forwarders, and the value proposition involves managing cargo and inventory across all of them.
Said IBM's TradeLens chief Marvin Erdly: 'I won't mince words here - we do need to get the other carriers on the platform. Without that network, we don't have a product.'
The chiefs of two rival shipping carriers, French shipping giant CMA CGM and German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd find TradeLens of no use to them and won't talk about it.
To Lars Jensen, CEO of SeaIntelligence Consulting, a Copenhagen-based shipping analyst firm, said the challenge for IBM and Maersk was apparent early on.
Mr Jensen, a former Maersk man himself, told CoinDesk he spoke to a group of large carriers about Maersk and IBM's blockchain proposition at a shipping conference in April, three months after the venture was announced.
'The other carriers basically said, 'sure, maybe - tell us a bit about it. And by the way, if we do this, then who owns the IP rights?' Whereupon they were given the answer that the IP rights would be for Maersk and IBM,' he said, adding that the carriers found the arrangement unacceptable.
After sounding out Swiss forwarding giant Kuehne + Nagel, the same objection surfaced.
'One of the guiding principles is that ownership of the platform of the consortium will not be restricted to the founding parties,' said the K+N man.
Inna Kuznetsova, the president and COO of INTTRA, which has 60 carriers transacting on its software-as-a-service, non-blockchain platform, believes the 'jury is still out' regarding the potential of blockchain in the shipping industry, which, she pointed out, has to be pragmatic thanks to thin margins and limited IT resources.
'The shipping industry today is tired of the big carrot coming at the end,' she said. 'In selecting IT project we have seen a high preference for projects which bring savings in six months to a year.'
But they cannot get enough ocean carriers to join because joiners want a measure of equality the founding firms refuse, reports New York's CoinDesk that specialises in blockchain and Bitcoin news.
Ten months ago, the project was spun off from Maersk into a joint venture with IBM. But in that time, the network has only recruited Singapore's Pacific International Lines (PIL), one of eight shipping lines in Asia.
The platform is designed such that Maersk's rivals will act as 'trust anchors' and run full blockchain nodes on the network. Moreover, large shippers of goods use multiple carriers and freight-forwarders, and the value proposition involves managing cargo and inventory across all of them.
Said IBM's TradeLens chief Marvin Erdly: 'I won't mince words here - we do need to get the other carriers on the platform. Without that network, we don't have a product.'
The chiefs of two rival shipping carriers, French shipping giant CMA CGM and German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd find TradeLens of no use to them and won't talk about it.
To Lars Jensen, CEO of SeaIntelligence Consulting, a Copenhagen-based shipping analyst firm, said the challenge for IBM and Maersk was apparent early on.
Mr Jensen, a former Maersk man himself, told CoinDesk he spoke to a group of large carriers about Maersk and IBM's blockchain proposition at a shipping conference in April, three months after the venture was announced.
'The other carriers basically said, 'sure, maybe - tell us a bit about it. And by the way, if we do this, then who owns the IP rights?' Whereupon they were given the answer that the IP rights would be for Maersk and IBM,' he said, adding that the carriers found the arrangement unacceptable.
After sounding out Swiss forwarding giant Kuehne + Nagel, the same objection surfaced.
'One of the guiding principles is that ownership of the platform of the consortium will not be restricted to the founding parties,' said the K+N man.
Inna Kuznetsova, the president and COO of INTTRA, which has 60 carriers transacting on its software-as-a-service, non-blockchain platform, believes the 'jury is still out' regarding the potential of blockchain in the shipping industry, which, she pointed out, has to be pragmatic thanks to thin margins and limited IT resources.
'The shipping industry today is tired of the big carrot coming at the end,' she said. 'In selecting IT project we have seen a high preference for projects which bring savings in six months to a year.'