Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Blockchain Labs for Open Collaboration (BLOC) on Thursday announced a funding partnership to set up Maritime Blockchain Labs (MBL), which will see one of the oldest and most recognizable names in the shipping industry join forces with blockchain experts to explore use cases in the global maritime industry
According to a press release, the Foundation, the lead funder of the initiative, will provide resources over the next 18 months for Maritime Blockchain Labs to pursue three demonstrator projects focused on aspects of risk and safety where distributed systems can enable breakthrough solutions. The three demonstrators will build, apply and model the use of distributed systems to create impacts that enhance safety of life and property at sea and serve as case examples to be shared with the community.
More information on these applications will be announced soon, but they are likely to involve the assurance and safety of critical infrastructure and driving new business models for the global maritime industry.
Another objective of MBL is to establish an ecosystem within the sector to foster innovation and collaboration between blockchain practitioners and industry participants to share knowledge and best practices, collectively define problems, and shape solutions that are open and interoperable.
Deanna MacDonald, CEO, BLOC, which works to provide thought leadership in the maritime, shipping and energy industries, said: in a statement, “We are delighted to have the backing and support of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. They share with us, the belief in the importance of BLOC’s mission: to apply blockchain to real-world problems, with the aim of building secure and accessible global digital infrastructure for maritime, a sector where distributed systems offer so many opportunities for impactful advancement.”
The partners’ objectives are twofold: to get real-world applications on the ground as soon as possible, and to share knowledge and methodologies among users, according to the statement. “Blockchain is, fundamentally, a collaborative technology and will only truly transform the industry if we are all working from the same, or interlinked, systems, rather than competing,” added MacDonald.
Lloyd’s Register Foundation and the Alan Turing Institute recently published an Insight Report on Distributed Ledger technologies (DLT), concluding that DLT and blockchain have a potentially wide range of applications related to engineered systems and supply chains, particularly in helping to address safety challenges of sectors such as maritime.
