| In CryptoBLK’s “Innovate Trade Talk” series, we are thrilled to have our partner, CargoX’s Founder and CEO Stefan Kukman, as our first guest, who shares their ambitions on disrupting cargo shipping, logistics, and supply chain management with the potential of blockchain, and how they see the partnership with CryptoBLK in terms of how it enhances the solutions and expand the business in trade.
Q: Could you please give a brief introduction about CargoX and what targets to accomplish? Stefan: CargoX has been founded with the idea to digitalize the most important paper document of title in shipping – the bill of lading. This document has persisted for hundreds of years, and we knew that for professionals and companies in the shipping industry the paper document often caused delays, problems, and even heavy damages, when it was lost, damaged, or even tampered with. We conceived the CargoX Platform for Blockchain Document Transfer (BDT) in a way that companies in shipping, trade, finance, manufacturing and other industries can digitalize their documents of title, register them with an immutable, neutral, public blockchain, and then transfer ownership with a virtually indestructible audit trail. At the same time, they keep their ultimate business confidentiality. In 2020 the platform was approved as only one of six digital global platforms for bills of lading by the International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs, who ensure 90% of global cargo. This was a major step in the global digitalization of trade documents, especially in the times of the lurking Covid-19 pandemic. Q: Who can benefit from your service and where are your core market territories? Stefan: The platform was built primarily for shipping, trade and finance industries, but we soon realized that it is highly relevant for adjacent industries as well – manufacturing, energy, services, as well as regulatory and governmental bodies and administration. Our market is global, wherever the customers agree to use the platform for transfer of ownership of documents of title. Q: How do you see the new partnership with CryptoBLK that brings advantage to both parties and how can it enhance your blockchain solution? Stefan: Both CargoX and the CryptoBLK are providers of hi-tech solutions, building cutting edge tools for the global business. We value the agility, insights and future-proof strategy of our partners, who provide the same core values to their customers as we do. The global solution marketplace is widely open, and it is not held just by a few players, as it was in the past. Large companies are assembling their business stack portfolios to suit their business strategies, and they are not shy anymore to reach for the best modern tools available. Blockchain will shape the business landscape 2021. It has found its use cases and has gone from being a gimmick to technology that has real-world applications. Our focus is on providing the best-of-class document transfer solution. And, by integrating with CryptoBLK we are able to provide added value to end users which is greater than the sum of its parts. Customers can now easily conclude the whole business process easily, seamlessly and effortlessly — all while using one window, one application and one login. Q: After the integration of CargoX and Atlas Elite, how can it reinforce your strategy to participate in the trade finance segment and expand your business? Stefan: We firmly believe that you need to specialize to become the best of the breed. We want to achieve that in the segment of document transfer, creation and management. However, business processes are quite wider than that. Documentation is just one small part of it. One of the most complex business processes can be seen in the trade finance segment. Working with CryptoBLK, as well as other trade finance platforms gives us an opportunity to create a business cluster and provide completely integrated solutions to our clients directly and through partner networks. By adding CryptoBLK to our offering, we have a great opportunity to offer a fully integrated solution. More and more companies demand complete workflow service, as they do not have time or expertise to connect standalone systems themselves. By integrating with Atlas Elite we are able to expand our customer base and offer CargoX services even in segments which do not involve documents of title at all. Q: How does the trade finance feature give interest to your customers? Stefan: In these times, it is all about tearing down the old barriers and opening new markets, reaching for new opportunities, while constantly providing better value to the customers. One of the biggest hurdles in boosting business performance is the lack of trust – and that is what we are aiming to improve. Having faster, more secure documents of title processing, while at the same time providing better insight and complete transparency and auditability, helps companies move faster, adapt faster, and resolve issues with greater confidence. The financial institutions have recognized these benefits as crucial for future business success. Our partner Contour is a great example, where the largest world banks have joined the platform. We feel assured this is the right way forward as we see the most traditional financial institutions gain ground in this segment and adopt smart technologies, such as the CargoX Platform. Q: CargoX platform is built on Ethereum, while Atlas Elite is using Corda, do you see any challenges in terms of interoperability between two blockchain platforms? Stefan: Interoperability is a great challenge, and everybody is at least thinking about it. We have already integrated with different platforms, who use different blockchains, thus providing a level of interoperability. But this is mostly not true interoperability in the sense that one blockchain smart contract would communicate with the other – that still remains to be achieved. It is more about systems interoperability, where one solution successfully communicates with the other. In this specific case this is the CryptoBLK Atlas Elite solution being connected with the CargoX Platform for Blockchain Document Transfer (BDT). There are industry-wide efforts made for standardization at the institutional associations level, and governmental level. The DCSA just recently published the eBL standards, while the DTLF, INATBA, ICC and UNCITRAL all have or soon will provide some level of standardization specification. CargoX is actively supporting these efforts. Q: What are the most important upcoming milestones for CargoX? What about your long-term prospects? Stefan: We believe the strength of trust lies in the size of the business community using these advanced blockchain solutions. In the case of a document of title, all the partakers in a specific process need to be registered on the platform – so the activity of on-boarding, educating, and testing is as intense as it gets right now. In many ways, the adoption of the CargoX Platform use resembles the days when companies started to use e-mail. It is a small step, but the benefits are nothing less than revolutionary. We expect the year 2021 to be of great importance for the trade, finance and manufacturing industries. The feedback we garner from our customers gives us the assurance that the market is approaching the point of sufficient mass adoption of digital document of title and other digital document technologies in trade and financial segments.
Learn more Partnership between CryptoBLK and CargoX here: CryptoBLK and CargoX Establish Strategic Partnership to Advance Global Trade and Supply Chains
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在 CryptoBLK 的「貿易創新訪談」系列中，我們很高興邀請我們的合作夥伴 CargoX 的創始人兼首席執行官 Stefan Kukman 作為我們第一期嘉賓。他分享了如何利用區塊鏈的潛力革新貨運、物流和供應鏈管理的雄心， 以及他們如何看待與 CryptoBLK 的合作關係，以增強其解決方案並擴展貿易業務。
問：能否介紹一下 CargoX 及未來計畫達成的目標？ Stefan：創辦 CargoX 的想法是源於數字化運輸中最重要的物權憑證——提單。這類文件已經存在了數百年，我們知道文件的丟失、損壞甚至篡改對航運業的公司和專業人士會造成延誤，帶來問題，甚至導致巨大的損失。 在構思 CargoX 區塊鏈文檔傳輸平台（Blockchain Document Transfer, BDT）時，我們希望這個平台使運輸、貿易、金融、製造業和其他行業的公司可以數字化所有文件，並將這些文件註冊在一個不可纂改的、具備難以銷毀的審計線索的、中立的公共區塊鏈上以進行所有權轉換，同時保持他們業務的機密性。 2020 年 CargoX 平台獲得了為全球 90% 貨運量提供保障的《保障和賠償俱樂部國際集團》（International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs）之認可，並成為全球六個數字提單平台之一。這是全球貿易文件數字化的一個重要里程碑，尤其是在這個Covid-19 疫情時期。 問：誰會從你們的服務中受益及您們的核心市場領域在哪裡？ Stefan：這個平台主要為航運、貿易和金融業而開發，但我們很快便意識到它與鄰近行業，包括製造業、能源、服務業、監管和政府機構及行政管理高度相關。 我們的市場是全球性的，任何同意使用該平台進行文件擁有權轉換的客戶都是我們的客戶。 問：您如何看待與 CryptoBLK 的新合作關係將為雙方帶來優勢，以及該合作如何增強您的區塊鏈解決方案？ Stefan：CargoX 和 CryptoBLK 都是高科技解決方案提供商，為全球性業務提供先進的工具。 我們十分重視合作夥伴是否具備敏捷性、洞察力和擁有面向未來的策略，因為我們相信這些能為客戶提供核心價值，也是我們一直堅持的方向。 與過往相比，全球解決方案市場的開放程度遠遠提升 ，不再由少數的參與者所持有。大型公司正在積極創建大量業務產品以貼合他們的業務戰略，並大膽地去尋找最佳工具。 區塊鏈將會塑造 2021年 的商業格局。它已經找到了應用場景，並從當初的“噱頭” 技術蛻變成了具有實際用途的應用程式的科技。我們提供頂尖的文件傳輸解決方案，而通過與 CryptoBLK 的合作，我們能為終端用戶提供 1+1 大與 2 的增值服務。現在客戶可以同時使用一個窗口、一個應用程序、一個登錄帳號，就能輕鬆無縫地完成整個業務流程。 問：你認為整合 CargoX 和 Atlas Elite 之後如何強化您參與貿易融資領域並擴展業務的策略？ Stefan：我們堅信要成為同類產品中的佼佼者只需專注我們的特長，而我們冀望在文件傳輸、創見和管理方面中實現這個一目標。但我們亦意識到商業世界中業務流程遠遠不止於此，因為文件只是其中的一小部分。 在貿易融資中，業務流程是最複雜的一種工作流程。與 CryptoBLK 以及其他貿易融資平台的合作使我們有機會創建業務集群，並通過合作夥伴網絡為我們的客戶直接提供完全集成的解決方案。 通過將 CryptoBLK 集成到我們的產品中，我們便能提供更完善的一體化解決方案。越來越多的公司要求更完善的工作流服務，因為他們沒有額外的時間或專業知識來自行連接獨立系統。通過與 Atlas Elite 集成，我們甚至可以在不涉及物權憑證轉換的細分市場中擴展我們的客戶群，為他們提供 CargoX 服務。 問：如何透過提供貿易融資功能使您的客戶感興趣？ Stefan：在這個時代，最重要是要打破舊有障礙，開闢新市場及尋找新機會，同時不斷為客戶提供更好的價值。提升業務績效的最大阻欄之一就是缺乏信任，這也是我們致力改善現狀的目標：提供更快、更安全的物權憑證處理，兼具更佳的洞察力及完整的透明度和可審核性，幫助公司更快地採取行動，接納新技術，以更大的信心解決問題。金融機構已經意識到這些好處對於未來業務有著關鍵性的成功。而我們的合作夥伴 Contour 便是一個很好的例子，一些世界最大的銀行都已加入了該平台。 我們確信我們在一條正確的道路前進，因為我們看到最傳統的金融機構在這一個領域中有所斬獲，並採用如 CargoX 平台等智能技術。 問：CargoX 平台建立在以太坊之上，而 Atlas Elite 使用 Corda，您是否看到兩個區塊鏈平台存在互通性的挑戰？ Stefan：互通性是一個巨大的挑戰，至少每個人都在考慮著。而我們經已集成了一些使用不同區塊鏈的平台，這從某種程度提供了一定的互通性。但這大多都不是真正意義上指的使一方的區塊鏈智能合約與另一方交流的互通性， 因為這仍需有待實現。這更多的是關於系統互通性，即一種解決方案是使能夠與另一方成功交流。從這個意義上說，我們確實解決了 CryptoBLK Atlas Elite 解決方案與CargoX 區塊鏈文件傳輸（BDT）平台的系統互通性的挑戰。 我們的行業在建立機構協會級別和政府級別的標準化上付出了很多努力。DCSA 協會最近發布了 eBL 標準，而 DTLF，IANTAB，ICC 和 UNCITRAL 都已經或即將提供某種程度的標準化規範。CargoX積極支持這些成果。 問：你認為 CargoX 目前 要達到的最重要的里程碑是什麼？ 對於前路有什麼展望？ Stefan：我們相信信任的力量有賴於那些使用先進的區塊鏈解決方案並具備一定規模的商業社區。在物權憑證這一領域，參與方在不同的流程中都需要在平台上註冊使用，因此諸如用戶引導、教育和培訓，及測試等活動都非常緊急。 在許多方面，CargoX 平台的使用情況與公司開始使用電子郵件的時代是很相似的，這雖然是時代變遷的一小步，帶來的卻絕對是革命性的好處。 我們預計 2021 年對貿易、金融和製造業具有十分重要的意義。從客戶那裡獲得的反饋使我們確信，貿易和金融市場正接近採用數字化物權憑證和其他數字化文件技術的規模化應用進程。
點擊了解更多關於 CryptoBLK 和 CargoX 的合作關係： CryptoBLK and CargoX Establish Strategic Partnership to Advance Global Trade and Supply Chains |
