Container Shipping Company Maersk Shuts Down Its Blockchain Platform
- Danish shipping company Maersk has announced that it will shut down TradeLens, a blockchain trading platform created by IBM in collaboration with GTD Solution, a division of Maersk in 2018.
- The platform has been closed because it failed to grab attention on a global scale and was unable to meet financial expectations as an independent company.
- TradeLens will be fully offline by end of quarter one, 2023 and all the parties that are involved in the functioning of the platform will make sure that customers are attended to without disruptions to their businesses.
Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping firm based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has confirmed that it will shut down its blockchain trading platform developed in cooperation with IBM in 2018, TradeLens, because it failed to grab attention on a global scale and was unable to meet financial expectations as an independent company.
According to a press release from Maersk, TradeLens was a “viable platform” which failed to achieve “the need for full global industry collaboration.” This led to the Danish shipping company shutting down the blockchain platform which was created with the “bold vision to make a leap in global supply chain digitization as an open and neutral industry platform,” stated Rotem Hershko, Head of Business Platforms at A.P. Moller – Maersk.
Hershko added that “TradeLens has not reached the level of commercial viability necessary to continue work and meet the financial expectations as an independent business,” which could be due to a significant demand for blockchain technology on a wider scale following the collapse of multiple platforms based on the technology.
“We are deeply grateful for the relentless efforts of our committed industry members and many tech talents, who together have worked diligently to advance the digitalisation of the industry through the TradeLens platform,” said Hershko
TradeLens was created by IBM in collaboration with GTD Solution, a division of Maersk, as a blockchain-enabled shipping solution “designed to promote more efficient and secure global trade.”
Starting Tuesday, the company decided to withdraw the offerings and discontinue the platform. Additionally, the blockchain-based platform will be fully offline by end of quarter one, 2023 and all the parties that are involved in the functioning of the platform will make sure that customers are attended to without disruptions to their businesses.
However, Maersk will not give up on its goal of digitizing the supply chain and increase industry and will offer other solutions to reduce trade friction and promote more global trade.
“We will leverage the work of TradeLens as a steppingstone to further push our digitisation agenda and look forward to harnessing the energy and ability of our technology talent in new ways,” added Hershko.
The blockchain industry has been struck hard due to the collapse of multiple crypto firms and blockchain-focused entities. The month of October has been termed as the worst month for blockchain and crypto after a series of attacks on multiple blockchain platforms resuled in a loss of billions of dollars.
While Maersk has dropped its plans to adopt blockchain tech, the Bank of America has come out in support of blockchain technology, and said that people should not tarnish blockchain technology with speculative crypto trading.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
