[NEWS] Vodafone succeeds in proof of concept for digital bill of lading with Sumitomo Corporation and Chainlink

British mobile phone company Vodafone announced on the 24th that it has successfully conducted a proof of concept (PoC) to exchange digital bills of lading issued on the blockchain in collaboration with Sumitomo Corporation, Chainlink Labs, the developer of Chainlink (LINK), and InnoWave.

Aimed at solving long-standing issues in the $32 trillion (approximately 4,800 trillion yen) global trade ecosystem, the PoC used Vodafone's DAB (Digital Asset Broker) and Chainlink's CCIP (Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol) to confirm interoperability of digital bills of lading between IoT devices.

The DAB is a system that automates IoT, blockchain, and smart contracts to enable the economy of things. The IoT devices are equipped with SIM cards and digital ID software.

The bill of lading is the ownership of the cargo in transit. When an exporter loads a container onto a ship, the ship issues the bill of lading to the exporter. The exporter can receive the physical bill of lading by sending it to the importer via courier and presenting it when the cargo arrives.

Bills of lading are important documents in trade finance. In recent years, some trade finance platforms have started using blockchain. Several shipping solutions use distributed ledger technology (DLT) and dozens of digital bill of lading (eBL) services use blockchain. The latter point has been a headache for logistics companies, as they do not want to integrate with a dozen different blockchain technologies.

Many of these digital solutions are not being used much. Only 2.1% of 45 million bills of lading were digitized last year. Shipping industry associations, including Swift, are being called upon by the world's largest freight forwarders to digitize their securities by early 2025. Some say that enabling interoperability will make it easier for all companies involved in logistics to adopt digital securities.

Jorge Bento, CEO of Vodafone DAB, commented, "Vodafone DAB and Chainlink have shown how their platforms can be combined to navigate the oceans of incompatibility by bridging traditional markets with advanced decentralized platforms."

He said that this PoC will "guarantee seamless and secure exchange of data and services."

The reason behind Sumitomo's participation in the PoC is that in May of this year, the company acquired 20% of the shares of DABCO Limited, a Vodafone subsidiary that develops DAB, and became an investor.

Vodafone is co-developing with Sumitomo a "marine cargo insurance system" that will detect an accident such as a fire on board a ship using an IoT device attached to the cargo, immediately contact the insurance company, and automatically bill for insurance premiums. Vodafone has previously built a similar system in the automotive sector.

Reference:Announcement
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