Unblocked Events, a hub for blockchain education and information, recently sat down with Richard Stockly from IBM to discuss TradeLens and its ability to connect the supply chain.

Richard will be speaking at Supply Chains Unblocked on 16 October at CMS in London.

Unblocked events: For readers who are new to blockchain, can you explain exactly what TradeLens is and how it differs from existing supply chain solutions?

Richard: TradeLens is an industry platform developed by IBM and Maersk to accelerate digitization in global trade. As a platform (as opposed to a product) its inherent value is enabling connectivity between participants in the supply chain – ports, terminals, carriers, customs, shippers etc. This allows the ecosystem to collaborate in a trusted way with less friction, less paperwork, and fewer manual processes.

We are different from other supply chain solutions because we don’t just bring platform functionality, but also bring together the supply chain network. Five of the top six ocean carriers have committed to the platform, which already accounts for 60% of global container volume. In addition, we have more than 100 ports and terminals on-boarded and contributing real-time data from source every minute of every day.

TradeLens is one of the most mature blockchain solutions to make it to market, it has been generally available for nearly a year and already has a track record of driving efficiencies in supply chain. While many blockchain solutions are stuck in proof-of-concept phases or stymied by regulatory hurdles, we are very much live and in production.