#What does Runes Bring to the Bitcoin Ecosystem?

[intelisync]

Bitcoin's Next Frontier: Runes Protocol and Fungible Tokens 2024

The introduction of the Runes Protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain in April 2024 represents a pivotal moment in the cryptocurrency landscape. Developed by Casey Rodarmor, this protocol enables the seamless creation and management of fungible tokens directly within the Bitcoin ecosystem, expanding its functionality and attracting a diverse range of developers and businesses. Leveraging the UTXO model and OP_RETURN opcode, Runes ensures efficient token management while maintaining compatibility with Bitcoin's existing infrastructure. Despite facing challenges such as integration complexities and transaction costs, Runes offers a standardized token protocol that promotes interoperability and consistency, positioning Bitcoin as a leading platform for tokenization.

With the launch of Runes, Bitcoin enters a new phase of tokenization, offering users unprecedented flexibility in creating and managing custom tokens. By utilizing the UTXO model and OP_RETURN opcode, Runes streamlines token operations while ensuring seamless integration with Bitcoin's robust infrastructure. However, challenges such as integration hurdles and transaction costs need to be addressed to fully unlock the potential of Runes. Nonetheless, Runes represents a significant advancement for Bitcoin, fostering innovation and expanding its utility in the broader blockchain ecosystem.

As Runes gains momentum and developers explore its capabilities, the future of Bitcoin tokenization looks promising. From decentralized finance platforms to digital collectibles and loyalty programs, Runes opens up a myriad of possibilities for token creation and management on Bitcoin. With its emphasis on interoperability and standardization, Runes lays the foundation for widespread adoption and innovation within the Bitcoin ecosystem. For businesses seeking to capitalize on the potential of cryptocurrency, partnering with industry experts like Intelisync can provide invaluable support in navigating the complexities of token development and integration, unlocking new Learn more....

[jacobhinkley]

What Is MakerDAO? An Interview with Rune Christensen

MakerDAO is a stability platform comprised of a stablecoin, a governance coin, and a decentralized governance model. Stablecoins are a potential solution to the volatility of cryptocurrencies, allowing for wider adoption. In this interview, Rune Christensen, Founder of MakerDAO, explains how this project attempts stabilization, exploring topics including security audits, liquidity, market manipulation, and the importance of a DAO.

Leslie Ankney: Hi Rune, thanks for joining us. MakerDAO has been both applauded and criticized for its complex stablecoin model. How does the MakerDAO ecosystem works to stabilize the Dai?

MakerDAO Founder Rune Christensen

Rune Christensen: MakerDAO works using collateralized debt positions (CDP) on a decentralized platform. People can take out debt positions using our stablecoin, the Dai (1 Dai = $1). The Dai credit system uses tokens or assets to back up their value.

Together, these CDPs create a marketplace of stability seekers and leverage seekers. Leverage seekers, or borrowers, put collateral, like Ethereum, into the system and generate Dai based on that collateral. The borrower wants to purchase additional ETH, and someone on the other side would be selling their ETH, seeking stability in the form of Dai. From this, one person has stability and the other person has a leverage position through the credit platform.

Leslie Ankney: All of this is done through a smart contract?

Rune Christensen: Yes, smart contracts make Dai accessible as an official front end for stability and leverage seekers. There are many new projects building on top of this, such as EasyCDP.com, creating these easy interfaces.

In general, we see Dai and the CDP credit platform as underlying infrastructures on Ethereum that other projects can build on, similar to the way many projects build on top of Ethereum itself. Any project can use Dai as a safe and stable store of value instead of something volatile.

Leslie Ankney: What about your other currency, Maker, and your governance model – how do they work? Why do you think this governance model is an important feature?

Rune Christensen: Maker is the first Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), predating even The DAO, and our project has been around before Ethereum even launched. Because of this, we’ve spent a long time thinking of worst-case scenarios and designing a DAO model that works in response.

A governance model is what blockchain is all about. Blockchain was born out of a response to the financial crisis. When Wall Street and banks thought they were “too big to fail” and weren’t held accountable for their decisions, blockchain and decentralized governance emerged in response in the form of Bitcoin. As a community, we want to do things differently.

MakerDAO and the MKR token use a decentralized governance structure to bring stability to our stablecoin, the Dai. We believe money and credit systems should be transparent so no one can sneak in their own agenda. An open governance process prevents corruption. If there’s risky stuff going on, like if a mortgage-backed security is being too lenient with credit ratings, anyone can audit that in real time. MakerDAO has a whole framework for making decisions in these situations.

MakerDAO is an open community where people reach consensus on how to safely govern credit and its stability. Sometimes, there will be insolvency, and our governance model holds its decision makers accountable. Members earn money when things are going well, and when there’s insolvency, MKR is autonomously sold off to recapitalize the Dai, and the MKR holders who made the decisions in the first place lose money as a result.

Unlike the financial crisis, where bankers were bailed out with taxpayer money, members of MakerDAO profit from good decisions, but also are held accountable for bad decisions. This model invites new members when things have been mismanaged so they have an opportunity to take control of the system and purchase shares of MKR. This governance model rewards learning from the mistakes over time. We think this is crucial to having a decentralized, stable system. Open governance helps to prevent the danger of relying too much on one single point of failure.

Leslie Ankney: Looking at other stablecoin models, we see some that are fiat-backed, like TrueUSD and Tether, as well as on-chain collateralized or crypto-collateralized, and then most recently, non-collateralized crypto models based on Seigniorage Shares, like Basis. Why did you select your model? What do you see as limitations with these other models?

Rune Christensen: We consider a multi-collateralized, on-chain model the only truly decentralized stablecoin. Nowadays, what used to be called “IOUs” are also called stablecoins.

I think it makes most sense to look at MakerDAO in contrast to something like Tether or TrueUSD, or Circle. These all ultimately rely on a bank, and that really means that this bank ends up holding leverage over an entire system almost like a centralized platform where whatever you build on top of the stablecoin is also built on top of the bank.

For example, TrueUSD is actively managing who can adopt their stablecoin because they have to conform to the demands of their bank. So on one hand, these stablecoins have real collateral behind them, but in the long run they are vulnerable to the “too big to fail” narrative where banks would be the point of failure.

Leslie Ankney: What about elastic crypto-collateralized models like Carbon, Basis, or Fragments?

Rune Christensen: They are the other extreme from the fiat-based models; Dai is in the middle of these two. All of those are basically Seigniorage Shares successors, which believe you can create money out of nothing. When you don’t have anything real backing your stablecoin, they can hold value for a while, like NuBits, but the only thing backing their value is faith and a number of complex algorithms.

Ultimately these algorithms are there to convince people that they should continue to buy this stablecoin for one dollar. Basis is my favorite Seigniorage Shares stablecoin. The problem with Basis is that it’s kind of the same for all of them; there is this circular relationship where the stablecoin is stable because the backing asset has value, and the backing asset has value because the stablecoin has utility, which means it is stable. That makes perfect sense when the backing asset gets more valuable and the stablecoin is more stable, but when you reverse that process you basically get a scenario where if the stablecoin becomes less stable, people start moving out of it, and the backing asset that is supposed to keep its value stable also suffers as a result. You get this death spiral, like a bank run, where suddenly there’s a loss of faith that makes even more people scared of what’s happening and everyone moves out of the market, causing a huge fall. This has actually happened to NuBits several times and they were able to recover once, and they may not be able to recover this time.

Another problem with this model is that it typically also involves using actual reserves. It isn’t actually fully uncollateralized; it’s kind of masquerading as being fully uncollateralized, but it actually has some collateral reserves from its initial ICO. This collateral is what allowed NuBits to stay afloat for so long.

Many other Seigniorage Shares models are planning to do the same thing, claiming that once there’s no longer enough collateral, there will be enough faith in these coins to keep their value. A true stablecoin needs to go beyond that; it should be designed for the worst possibilities and able to survive them. This is the approach we take with Maker. We’re prepared for a massive market-wide meltdown of many different asset classes by diversifying our collateral.

Leslie Ankney: I remember you really focus on black swan events in presentations.

Rune Christensen: Stablecoins have an obligation to look at all the ways a system can fail and really analyze and describe them, and then mitigate them in the best possible way. I think many stablecoin models are completely ignoring this and not thinking about it enough.

Leslie Ankney: What are you doing to test your code to ensure MakerDAO works as planned?

Rune Christensen: We use many external audits. In one case, we found an issue where if we kept using the system for hundreds of years, we’d eventually get rounding errors; we were able to find and catch that thanks to auditing. We haven’t had any major issues, but we’re still super careful and looking for bugs. We invest heavily in formal verification and are developing our own open-source programming language for assisting formal verification so the entire community can learn from this work.

Leslie Ankney: How do you prevent exploitation and market manipulation? For example, on March 18th, very recently, approximately US$4 million was liquidated to repurchase $4 million in Dai. When this auction occurred, the price of Dai spiked from $1.00 to $1.11, which could net someone almost $300K in profit.

Rune Christensen: This is actually a sign the system is working. We are just seeing it on an extreme magnification because we’re running our beta version with a very small ecosystem of participants. In our current beta model, the system buys Dai at a premium as an incentive for people to sell it back, allowing the system to contract its supply. In the short run, if the Dai rises to $1.11, selling it yields an 11% profit as a design incentive. We encourage people to sell their Dai when they see the price go over a dollar, and purchase Dai when they see it go below a dollar, bringing the price up.

Leslie Ankney: Where do you see the mass adoption coming for stablecoins?

Rune Christensen: Both supply chain companies and the unbanked can benefit from blockchain, and especially through stablecoins. Supply chain today is a massive industry based on very inefficient systems ready for disruption. Blockchain brings payment tracking, faster transactions, and lower fees. Stablecoins remove the international currency conversion barrier and lengthy transfer times that make it really hard for cash-strapped small businesses to grow.

Very often, small and mid-sized companies can’t get the kind of loans offered to large companies, and a collateralized credit platform removes this unfair practice by basing loans on collateral, not company size. Solving this imbalance will unlock new efficiency and innovation for healthy economic growth.

Stablecoins can also help the unbanked. For example, we’ve partnered with Bifrost, a charity solution that brings cash directly to crisis zones. Using Dai, Bifrost is able to cut out banks and make a direct transfer through a charity. They purchase Dai in their home country, and then sell it for cash on the ground which they can make immediately available to the people who need it. Not only does this lower fees and decrease transfer times, it also removes the risk of funds getting lost, frozen, or seized by the wrong parties.

We think these two things, like the business focus of supply chain and then the social focus on bank and charity efforts, are strong pillars to direct growth.

Leslie Ankney: Rune, thank you for your time today. Next time, I’ll be interviewing Kain Warwick, the founder of Havven, for yet another approach to creating a stable cryptocurrency.

What Is MakerDAO? An Interview with Rune Christensen published first on https://medium.com/@smartoptions

[cryptswahili]

Arax Cryptocurrency Wallet and COSS.io Announce World’s First Token Merger, and Create a Crypto One Stop Solution

Bitcoin Press Release: Blockchain giants Arax Wallet and COSS are merging to create a ‘crypto one-stop solution’, with the token swap to take place on June 25th, 2019.

16 June 2019, SINGAPORE –  Arax, a fintech and blockchain startup in Singapore has merged with COSS, one of Singapore’s most established cryptocurrency exchanges. The unified brand will be known as COSS – Crypto One Stop Solution. The merger also results in what is the world’s first token merger – a merger of the COSS and LALA utility tokens – to form a super-token which will be an asset combining all the features of its parent tokens.

In the COSS + LALA token swap update, the companies announced that they will adopt the Crypto One Stop Solution brand with the vision that the merged product stack becomes one of the largest digital asset ecosystems to take shape worldwide. Users will be able to trade, store, transact and spend their digital assets from a single platform with a single ID – making mass adoption of digital assets a reality. The merger also brings together the experience and resources of both companies to become a fast-growing Asian fintech startup with offices in Singapore and India.

Sankalp Shangari, Group CEO of COSS and Founder of Arax, shares his thoughts on the adoption of digital assets:

“This is history in the making and we are proud to be building one of the largest Digital Asset Ecosystems. One vision, simple focus – crypto adaptability for the masses. No one can deny that modern digital assets have immense value as they go mainstream and as corporate behemoths begin to participate actively in the industry. While their utility in a person’s day-to-day life has been a challenge, with previous experience and an abundant network, we are on absolutely the right track and a great growth trajectory.“

COSS believe that its token currently surpasses all existing exchange tokens in the market, in terms of potential utility, and that the merger will add significantly to that utility, adding Increased blockchain support. Arax offers multi-digital asset storage and utility product which supports several blockchains, a feature-set larger than other existing digital asset wallets today. Users remain in full control of their private keys while being able to send, receive and spend digital assets on day-to-day utilities like global mobile top-ups supported in 160+ countries, access instant digital asset exchange, make GPS-based transfers among a host of other ready-to-launch services.

Launched in mid-2017, COSS has a vision to become one of the finest digital assets platforms – a one-stop for all things cryptocurrency. The platform currently has a  feature stack to support a secure smart contract enabled e-wallet management system, support 5 stablecoins, an infrastructure to support ICO launches, fiat payment gateway for international currencies, listing over 90+ listed digital assets and providing a unique Fee Split Allocation feature (FSA). FSA lets token holders receive 50% of all trading fees generated by the exchange, distributed through a DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation); a true use of blockchain while serving stakeholder needs first. The company is also readying to launch its IEO platform in the coming weeks. COSS is a member of the Singapore Fintech Association and Ethereum Enterprise Alliance.

Mr. Shangari continues:

“We have created a platform – a currently live platform – which allows users to do more with their crypto assets. They are used to storing it on one platform, trading it on another and sending it to yet another for every way they wish to spend it. That is not required anymore! And we are not stopping there… we continue to build features for the future.”

Singapore is known for its global reputation as one of the most important fintech ecosystems. The government has and continues to support innovation while developing a modern regulatory environment. This has led to the launch and growth of hundreds of financial technology startups developing products supported by the latest technologies. This merger sees two strong members of the Singapore fintech ecosystem coming together to become a versatile digital asset platform in the rapidly expanding industry.

The new COS token combines the utility of what were previously two separate tokens, with their own set of features, into one super-token powering one ecosystem — the Crypto One Stop Solution ecosystem.

The new COS tokens will have the following existing as well as additional utilities going forward:

Fee Split Allocation (FSA) — all COS token holders receive a 50% split of the total trading fees COSS collects on a daily basis, based on their holdings.

Trading Fee Discounts — traders can pay trading fees on COSS.io using the COS token to get a discount on the usual trading fee.

COSS Wallet features, utilities, promotions, and discounts — you will be able to utilize your COS and other balances on the COSS Wallet app to make GPS-based transfers, mobile credit top-ups, earn reward points and access a host of other features which are being built into it.

All COSS and LALA tokens will be swapped for the new COS token only on COSS.io exchange. The swap commences on 25th June 2019 at 14:00 GMT+8.

The swap ratios are:

COSS:COS = 1:1

LALA:COS = 10:1

Token Swap Details:

The swap will be done ONLY on COSS.io exchange

COSS and LALA tokens from other exchanges and external wallets MUST be deposited to COSS.io to swap the tokens to COS

Trading on COSS and LALA pairs will be halted on 24th June 2019. The platform  will announce, in advance, the time when trading will halt and all open orders canceled

Withdrawals of COSS and LALA tokens will be disabled on 24th June 2019. The time will be announced. Deposits will remain unaffected.

FSA will be disabled from 25th June 14:00 GMT+8 to 01st July 2019, 14:00 GMT+8

COSS and LALA tokens in FSA wallets will be converted to COS tokens during the week commencing 1st of July, 2019

The swap will continue on COSS.io for at least 3 months from 25th June 2019. COSS will l announce if any further extensions to this window are to be made.

Rune Evensen, Co-Founder and Chief Product & Strategy Officer of COSS, shares more about the announcement from Singapore:

“The vision from day one with COSS was to build a true ONE STOP SOLUTION. Not to necessarily build everything in-house but to bring it all together. This merger is a huge step towards reaching that goal but it doesn’t stop there. Our roadmap is long and we are continuously looking to partner with more and more providers that wish to offer its products and services through our Ecosystem. It is all about building a sustainable ecosystem with the users in focus.”

The token swap to merge the COSS and LALA tokens begins on 25th June 2019 on COSS.io.

Learn more about COSS at – https://www.coss.io/ Read about COSS on Medium: https://medium.com/@coss.io Visit the COSS exchange at – https://exchange.coss.io/ Join the COSS Telegram group – t.me/myCOSS Follow COSS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cosscrypto Find COSS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cosscrypto Meet the COSS team on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cosscrypto/ COSS on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CossIO/

Media Contact

Contact Name: Satyarth Mishra Contact Email: satyarth@coss.io Contact LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyarthmishra/ Location: Singapore

COSS.io is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

The post Arax Cryptocurrency Wallet and COSS.io Announce World’s First Token Merger, and Create a Crypto One Stop Solution appeared first on Bitcoin PR Buzz.

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]

[cryptobrief]

Bitcoin Press Release: Blockchain giants Arax Wallet and COSS are merging to create a ‘crypto one-stop solution’, with the token swap to take place on June 25th, 2019.

16 June 2019, SINGAPORE –  Arax, a fintech and blockchain startup in Singapore has merged with COSS, one of Singapore’s most established cryptocurrency exchanges. The unified brand will be known as COSS – Crypto One Stop Solution. The merger also results in what is the world’s first token merger – a merger of the COSS and LALA utility tokens – to form a super-token which will be an asset combining all the features of its parent tokens.

In the COSS + LALA token swap update, the companies announced that they will adopt the Crypto One Stop Solution brand with the vision that the merged product stack becomes one of the largest digital asset ecosystems to take shape worldwide. Users will be able to trade, store, transact and spend their digital assets from a single platform with a single ID – making mass adoption of digital assets a reality. The merger also brings together the experience and resources of both companies to become a fast-growing Asian fintech startup with offices in Singapore and India.

Sankalp Shangari, Group CEO of COSS and Founder of Arax, shares his thoughts on the adoption of digital assets:

“This is history in the making and we are proud to be building one of the largest Digital Asset Ecosystems. One vision, simple focus – crypto adaptability for the masses. No one can deny that modern digital assets have immense value as they go mainstream and as corporate behemoths begin to participate actively in the industry. While their utility in a person’s day-to-day life has been a challenge, with previous experience and an abundant network, we are on absolutely the right track and a great growth trajectory.“

COSS believe that its token currently surpasses all existing exchange tokens in the market, in terms of potential utility, and that the merger will add significantly to that utility, adding Increased blockchain support. Arax offers multi-digital asset storage and utility product which supports several blockchains, a feature-set larger than other existing digital asset wallets today. Users remain in full control of their private keys while being able to send, receive and spend digital assets on day-to-day utilities like global mobile top-ups supported in 160+ countries, access instant digital asset exchange, make GPS-based transfers among a host of other ready-to-launch services.

Launched in mid-2017, COSS has a vision to become one of the finest digital assets platforms – a one-stop for all things cryptocurrency. The platform currently has a  feature stack to support a secure smart contract enabled e-wallet management system, support 5 stablecoins, an infrastructure to support ICO launches, fiat payment gateway for international currencies, listing over 90+ listed digital assets and providing a unique Fee Split Allocation feature (FSA). FSA lets token holders receive 50% of all trading fees generated by the exchange, distributed through a DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation); a true use of blockchain while serving stakeholder needs first. The company is also readying to launch its IEO platform in the coming weeks. COSS is a member of the Singapore Fintech Association and Ethereum Enterprise Alliance.

Mr. Shangari continues:

“We have created a platform – a currently live platform – which allows users to do more with their crypto assets. They are used to storing it on one platform, trading it on another and sending it to yet another for every way they wish to spend it. That is not required anymore! And we are not stopping there… we continue to build features for the future.”

Singapore is known for its global reputation as one of the most important fintech ecosystems. The government has and continues to support innovation while developing a modern regulatory environment. This has led to the launch and growth of hundreds of financial technology startups developing products supported by the latest technologies. This merger sees two strong members of the Singapore fintech ecosystem coming together to become a versatile digital asset platform in the rapidly expanding industry.

The new COS token combines the utility of what were previously two separate tokens, with their own set of features, into one super-token powering one ecosystem — the Crypto One Stop Solution ecosystem.

The new COS tokens will have the following existing as well as additional utilities going forward:

Fee Split Allocation (FSA) — all COS token holders receive a 50% split of the total trading fees COSS collects on a daily basis, based on their holdings.

Trading Fee Discounts — traders can pay trading fees on COSS.io using the COS token to get a discount on the usual trading fee.

COSS Wallet features, utilities, promotions, and discounts — you will be able to utilize your COS and other balances on the COSS Wallet app to make GPS-based transfers, mobile credit top-ups, earn reward points and access a host of other features which are being built into it.

All COSS and LALA tokens will be swapped for the new COS token only on COSS.io exchange. The swap commences on 25th June 2019 at 14:00 GMT+8.

The swap ratios are:

COSS:COS = 1:1

LALA:COS = 10:1

Token Swap Details:

The swap will be done ONLY on COSS.io exchange

COSS and LALA tokens from other exchanges and external wallets MUST be deposited to COSS.io to swap the tokens to COS

Trading on COSS and LALA pairs will be halted on 24th June 2019. The platform  will announce, in advance, the time when trading will halt and all open orders canceled

Withdrawals of COSS and LALA tokens will be disabled on 24th June 2019. The time will be announced. Deposits will remain unaffected.

FSA will be disabled from 25th June 14:00 GMT+8 to 01st July 2019, 14:00 GMT+8

COSS and LALA tokens in FSA wallets will be converted to COS tokens during the week commencing 1st of July, 2019

The swap will continue on COSS.io for at least 3 months from 25th June 2019. COSS will l announce if any further extensions to this window are to be made.

Rune Evensen, Co-Founder and Chief Product & Strategy Officer of COSS, shares more about the announcement from Singapore:

“The vision from day one with COSS was to build a true ONE STOP SOLUTION. Not to necessarily build everything in-house but to bring it all together. This merger is a huge step towards reaching that goal but it doesn’t stop there. Our roadmap is long and we are continuously looking to partner with more and more providers that wish to offer its products and services through our Ecosystem. It is all about building a sustainable ecosystem with the users in focus.”

The token swap to merge the COSS and LALA tokens begins on 25th June 2019 on COSS.io.

Learn more about COSS at – https://www.coss.io/ Read about COSS on Medium: https://medium.com/@coss.io Visit the COSS exchange at – https://exchange.coss.io/ Join the COSS Telegram group – t.me/myCOSS Follow COSS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cosscrypto Find COSS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cosscrypto Meet the COSS team on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cosscrypto/ COSS on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CossIO/

Media Contact

Contact Name: Satyarth Mishra Contact Email: satyarth@coss.io Contact LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyarthmishra/ Location: Singapore

COSS.io is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

The post Arax Cryptocurrency Wallet and COSS.io Announce World’s First Token Merger, and Create a Crypto One Stop Solution appeared first on Bitcoin PR Buzz.

[dailycryptonews-blog]

Crypto News - Scandinavian Start-Up To Track World’s Shipping Containers Through Blockchain

Scandinavian Start-Up To Track World’s Shipping Containers Through Blockchain sponsored A start-up says a real-time inventory of the world’s 27 mln shipping containers could save industry $5.7 bln a year and cut CO2 emissions. A start-up led by seasoned professionals in the shipping industry ... You May Likes reading: Also Read: Latest Crypto News

Scandinavian Start-Up To Track World’s Shipping Containers Through Blockchain

sponsored

A start-up says a real-time inventory of the world’s 27 mln shipping containers could save industry $5.7 bln a year and cut CO2 emissions.

A start-up led by seasoned professionals in the shipping industry is creating a Blockchain-driven platform which, for the first time, will provide a real-time registry of the world’s 27 million containers.

Blockshipping says its solution – which is called the Global Shared Container Platform (GSCP for short) – has what it takes to address staggering inefficiencies in the marketplace, bringing significant savings for businesses throughout the supply chain and dramatically reducing the industry’s toll on the environment.

Despite being a “hugely valuable” sector, Blockshipping says the industry has been plagued for years by security threats, overcapacity and ever-tightening environmental policies – adding that some issues have gone unresolved for decades.

Within a three to four-year period, the Scandinavian company aspires to have 60 percent market coverage – equating to 16 million shipping containers – and hopes its utility token will become the standard currency for transactions between firms operating in the industry.

Crunching the numbers

Blockshipping believes firms will be incentivized to adopt its technology by estimates which suggest the industry could enjoy annual savings of $5.7 billion if the Global Shared Container Platform goes mainstream.

This would be achieved through the “smarter handling” that the GSCP would enable – making it easier for deficit and surplus containers to be matched. Blockshipping’s white paper cites research which indicates that carriers could reduce the size of their container fleets by up to 20 percent by installing real-time tracking sensors and gaining accurate location data.

The company also claims that, at any given time, one in five containers worldwide (the equivalent of 5 mln units) is unaccounted for. To compound the problem, it can be difficult to gather information about whether containers are empty or loaded, meaning that, all too frequently, trains and trucks are wasting time and fuel transporting empty metal boxes.

Needless to say, this means that the environmental advantages of the GSCP could prove quite significant. According to analysis from Opsiana, a consultancy also based in Scandinavia, the platform could see global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 4.6 million tons per annum – with nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission cut by 4,900 tons.

Important partnership announcements

In the weeks to come Blockshipping expects to announce 3-4 collaboration agreements with different technology partners who will assist Blockshipping in developing the GSCP platform.

Blockshipping has announced a partnership with MakerDAO, creators of the Dai stablecoin. The partnership specifically focus on the internal clearing and settlement token in the GSCP platform called CPT – Container Platform Token – that needs to be stable at all time. The partnership is expected to accelerate development and availability of the Blockshipping GSCP platform by leveraging Maker DAO’s proven Dai Stablecoin System to power the GSCP platform.

Rune Christensen, CEO of MakerDAO, sees a lot of possible benefits to Blockshipping by using the Dai Stability System to power the GSCP platform. In a joint press release he says:

“We look forward to a partnership with Blockshipping in developing the best possible solution for transforming the container shipping space, where the Blockshipping solutions on the longer term can be “powered by Dai.” We are eager to show that our stablecoin system is perfectly designed for supply chain projects like Blockshipping’s GSCP platform.”

“Huge industry interest”

Blockshipping says that its first customers will be able to start using the portal from the first quarter of 2019. This year, the platform is being designed and populated with data, paving the way for smart contracts to be developed and testing to take place.

The company is going to be offering two types of tokens. The first, known as the container platform token (CPT,) would be pegged to the US dollar and used for clearing and settling transactions. Meanwhile, the container crypto coin (CCC) is going to be issued on the global Ethereum Blockchain for its initial coin offering. Examples of when CPT would be used include fees associated with the land transport of containers, and costs linked to repairing and servicing units.

Blockshipping says its GSCP platform has been initially funded by the Danish Maritime Foundation as well as private angels, but an ICO is being performed to “further accelerate the development and adoption” of the ecosystem.

The company’s chief executive, Peter Ludvigsen, told Cointelegraph: “Traditionally, the shipping industry has a reputation for being rather conservative, but what I have experienced since the announcement of our GSCP project is anything but the traditional pushback on new business ideas. It has been like one unbroken series of positive dialogues with key players of all areas in the container shipping industry.

“I am extremely proud to say that a few days ago Blockshipping obtained confirmation from a global container carrier that they will join our GSCP platform as our first customer. This is a carrier in the 10-20 global ranking who has also confirmed that they will join our Customer advisory board.”

Blockshipping’s public sale will be commencing on May 14.

  Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.

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