ICO Review — 5 reasons why Blockshipping should be revolution the Global Container Shipping Industry

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Crypto ICO Review - US/FR

7 min readJun 7, 2018

Blockshipping’s GSCP solution is a blockchain and IoT-based decentralized platform that aims to become the world’s first real-time freight container registry.

1. An industry ripe for disruption

In the 1950s, the American Malcom Purcell McLean issued the revolutionary idea to carry virtually all types of packaged goods in standard size metal intermodal cargo containers. These containers can be stacked in large vessels and transported on trucks, barges or rails. This idea, initially considered as original, was adopted all over the world and finally became the preferred method of handling goods during the 1960s and 1970s.

Currently, more than 27 million containers exist worldwide and move from one destination to another on trucks, container cars, container ships, or waiting somewhere in a port, container yard or container. a railway station.

In terms of numbers, the container shipping industry accounts for about 60% of the world’s maritime trade and its total value is estimated at $ 12 trillion for 2017.

However, this industry is troubled by a major problem: about 20% of the containers (5 million) are uncontrolled ie nobody knows their precise locations, if they are currently in transit or waiting for collection some or if they are in transit, nobody knows their destinations. In addition, no one knows in real time if they are empty or loaded, which means that no one knows if a truck or a train is wasting time and energy carrying an empty “metal box” instead of carry real goods.

In addition to this problem, the shipping industry is currently facing several other major problems:

Rental and/or sale of containers requires a large and complex paper flow
IT systems and processes are outdated resulting in delays and errors
Considerable waste in “air shipping” by not using potentially empty containers
The collection of costs incurred is slow and often wrong
Real-time tracking is actually not real-time
Customer service for shippers is poor and below market standards

In addition, this industry has been troubled for years by challenges such as overcapacity, low rates, safety and increased environmental regulations.

Although the shipping industry is considered a very conservative environment, it is now ready for disruption bringing new inspirations, new technologies and new effective solutions.

In this context, Blockshipping (which is an integral part of this industry) has decided to launch its GSCP platform using blockchain technologies to solve some of the most important problems in the Global Container Shipping Industry.

2. Significant gains saving

With the adoption of its GSCP platform, Blockshipping aims to save estimated at $ 5.7 billion per year to the marine sector. These savings will affect the following opportunities:

Greybox opportunity: currently, many containers are empty or half empty, resulting in estimated losses of between $ 3 billion and $ 5 billion a year for carriers. By using the GSCP platform, companies will be able to match opportunities where they can either share containers or use empty containers.
Street-turn / triangulation opportunity: the Blockshipping platform will save the carrier $ 750 million a year by using the triangulation or street-turn method thanks to its real-time container tracking.
Container Fleet Reduction: currently, because of the lack of real-time container tracking and sharing, global carriers have dramatically inflated their container inventory. Blockshipping technology is expected to reduce the number of these containers by 15–20% using real-time tracking information.
Process automation: business processes, still based on manual paperwork, emails or PDFs, are outdated and ineffective. Again, the Blockshipping approach would automate them, which would result in considerable savings in the process.

In addition to this potential savings, the use of the GSCP platform is expected to have a significant impact on the environment. According to an analysis conducted by the Scandinavian consulting firm Opsiana, the use of the Blockshipping platform is expected to result in a reduction in global CO2 emissions of at least 4.6 million tonnes per year.

3. Revenue Share Pool, Reverse Dutch Auction and Market Maker Fund

The GSCP platform relies on Blockchain technologies and the use of smart contracts. The Blockchain provides real-time visibility and visibility, and the use of smart contracts automates processes and payments between parties. This will result in a reduction of internal control and administration functions and therefore costs.

The CPT internal token (or IT on the chart) will be used by the maritime industry players for each use of the GSCP platform for settlement of transactions. These transactions will cover a variety of services and fees such as container exchange fees, terminal handling, deposits and carrier fees. All these transactions will be realized thanks to the use of smart contracts which will allow to completely automate this process.

A percentage of the revenue generated by transaction fees on the platform will be donated to a pool, the Revenue Share Pool. The amount of this pool (then CPT token) is then converted to Ether. The platform will then rely on smart contracts to conduct a Reverse Dutch Auctionon the blockchain Ethereum. This is an auction in which Blockshipping offers tokens CCC owners to redeem their tokens at a price per token that will increase until the initial amount of the pool is spent. Once the auction is over, Blockshipping will redistribute the CCC tokens acquired to all remaining CCC tokens. Thus the holders of CCC tokens will be rewarded whatever their decisions: sell their tokens or keep them.

In addition, BlockShipping has planned to set up the Market Maker Fund. This is a special fund that will aim to be a security for investors. If, in the time between the end of the ICO and the launch of the first version of the platform, the price of the CCC token went down to a certain threshold, investors could resell their tokens directly to Blockshipping at a floor price fixed upstream.

4. Great team backed by The Danish Maritime Funds

To successfully develop its platform, Blockshipping has built a strong team of profiles with big experience in the container transport industry, Blockchain technologies, and IoT sensor technologies. These different profiles bring a certain maturity to the team which gives it a very serious credibility. The team consists of six people, three Advisors and two lawyers from one of the largest law firms in Denmark.

CEO and founder, Peter Ludvigsen, has 39 years of experience in the shipping industry and has a complete background as he has held positions in all sectors: shipping, operations management, port terminals and containers. He also has entrepreneurial experience, having successfully founded and managed Bestshore Business Solutions UK Limited, his own shipping company.

The COO Christian Gyntelberg is an expert in shipping and logistics process with extensive practical experience in leading commercial and operational departments. He has held senior positions in companies such as A.P. Møller and DHL.

The CTO Jesper Vedelsby has more than 20 years of experience as a CTO and technical architect in the shipping, air transport and energy sectors.

The three advisors are also very experienced profiles. Jesper Præstensgaard has more than 30 years of experience in the delivery, Bo Hembæk Svensson is an expert in enterprise software who sat on the European board of IBM and Bridget Cosgrave is a specialist in services around the Internet of Things that focuses since 2016 on the Internet of Ships.

In addition, among private investors is the Danish Maritime Fund which is a real guarantee of security for the success of the project.

5. The roadmap and an initial prototype

The roadmap of the GSCP platform is very interesting because it is divided into four major versions with the aim of delivering the platform in a step-by-step way by quickly bringing value to the GSCP clients.

The first version of the platform provides a first version of the global registry to know the location of a container in real time, the establishment of different blocks of the blockchain for instant settlement through the use of smart contracts and of course, a first version of the web portal allowing the different actors of the ecosystem to use the GSCP platform.

The development of this first version has already begun and the portal should be launched with the first customers in the first quarter of 2019.

In addition, in mid-May 2018, Blockshipping published on its Youtube account a video presenting the first version of the prototype of its GSCP portal.