blockchain, the shared accounting ledgers that used the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, is getting another big boost this year. The latest big move came from the IT services giant IBM and Danish shipping giant Maersk. The two behemoths are teaming up to form a joint venture that will focus more on the fast-growing blockchain technology.
According to Reuters, the still unnamed New York-based venture is set to be owned 49 percent by the American tech giant IBM and 51 percent by the Danish shipping giant Maersk. The goal is to build a global trade digitization platform that can be used in the global shipping trade and help shippers, ports, banks, and other stakeholders in the global supply chains.
The newly announced blockchain venture is expected to replace traditional paperwork with more secure and hack-proof digital records.
About Maersk and the IBM partnership
Founded in 1928 and based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Maersk is the global container division of the Danish-based business conglomerate Maersk Group. Maersk is the largest container shipping company in the world, with over 374 offices in 116 countries. The company operates some of the largest container ships in the world, including the E-class vessel Emma Maersk. Currently, the company operates around 600 vessels and employs approximately 7,000 seafarers and 25,000 land-based people.
For Maersk, the joint venture with IBM means a more efficient transaction processing for the entire global shipping industry.
Maersk will be using IBM’s Big Blue services, which include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data analytics and Internet of things technologies.
As mentioned earlier by VentureBeat, Michael White, former president of Maersk Line (North America), will be heading the new IBM-Maersk venture. The two plan to use the distributed ledger technology behind Blockchain to create a global trade platform that will bring supply chain visibility in real-time, the website added.
The companies plan to release a new product from their newly announced joint venture within six months.
This is not the first time Maersk made a partnership with IBM. The two have already done on collaboration works in the past year. In addition to IBM, Maersk has also partnered with software giant Microsoft on some corporate Blockchain efforts for marine insurance.
IBM new milestone
IBM has made huge headlines this year, a huge technological milestone. The US-based tech giant has just earned more than 1,900 cloud-related patents in 2017. Additionally, the company also released an AI-optimized chip that reportedly 10 times faster than the current offerings in the market.
According to Forbes, the Armonk-based company has come off this year with one big impressive performance. The company has finally established itself as one of the top three enterprise cloud providers in the hotly contested cloud computing space, which include Amazon and the software giant Microsoft. The IT giant has reportedly generated almost $16 billion in cloud revenue for the trailing 12 months only. IBM is expected to get even deeper into the cloud business this year.
