ConsolFreight is a leading operator in the digitised Freight Forwarding industry. ConsolFreight has commissioned Europechain, a GDPR supporting blockchain platform, to develop a Proof of Concept (POC) for the freight forwarding industry.

The POC will examine blockchain as an enabler of trade finance in international logistics operations. This POC is led by EOS Dublin, Ireland’s leading EOS blockchain consultancy & block producer. EOS Dublin is a founder of the Europechain ecosystem. Exploring blockchain in this manner is hailed as the new intersection between Fintech and FreightTech.

“We chose Europechain to protect our clients working in Europe,” says Ernesto Vila, CEO of ConsolFreight.  “As a global operator we needed to offer a solution that is complaint with GDPR as well as a registered business with registered offices. This is critical to business.”

The POC uses a number of high profile clients to track the transport of goods across international borders with an independent Freight Forwarder providing the trade finance rather than traditional lines of credit offered by banks. Underpinning the process with blockchain allows the transaction to remain secure and low risk through a combination of Internet of Things (IoT) and smart contracts.

Vila points to the unique low risk presented by this blockchain solution. He stated: “In our model, the cargo’s authenticity and value is validated in order to be used as collateral, shifting the lending criteria from the repayment capacity of the buyer to the value of the collateralized asset in order to extend credit to SMEs that wouldn’t be bankable.”

Trade Forward is a new business model of collaboration amongst insurance companies, financial institutions and logistics providers that redistributes the risk associated with trade finance to create SMEs financial inclusion

ConsolFreight opted to partner with EOS Dublin and use the Europechain EOSIO blockchain for a number of key reasons: compliance, immutability, speed, no cost transactions and security.

The implementation of this POC combines traditional web APIs with modern blockchain smart contracts. ConsolFreight will also be included in the growing list of partners on the Europechain network.

Sharif Bouktila, CEO of EOS Dublin, welcomes the opportunity to trial the benefits of the EOS blockchain in a real-world use case. “We are doing some pretty interesting stuff with the EOSIO smart contracts, facilitating the workflow and tracking asset ownership. Using a non-fungible token (NFT) contact we will create, issue, transfer and burn NFTs. These NFTs will be used to track asset ownership throughout the workflow and will also provide escrow functionality for the tokens. Ultimately a smart contract will store the details of the contract thereby issuing pay-outs based on received data.

“At the end of the day Freight Forwarders want an easy to use, fail proof system. We are offering them just that – and at a much-reduced cost”

The ambitious project has the support of Telefonica, who provided connectivity through Kite, their IoT connectivity platform. It also included the collaboration of EOS Dublin using EOSIO blockchain technology and the participation of Anova, which provided insurance security to the transported cargo.

Europechain is a GDPR compliant blockchain platform. Powered by the EOSIO protocol, it is managed and governed by experienced block producers registered in the European Union. Europechain brings together an ecosystem of technology providers, system integrators and commercial partners, enabling global enterprises to deploy scalable, resilient and EU compliant applications.

ConsolFreight was founded in 2016. It is a collaborative platform that uses breakthrough technology such as blockchain and IoT to help improve the logistics and supply chain current processes. ConsolFreight works towards enhancing and better positioning the role of freight forwarders, helping them to grow their business and evolve with the current times. They achieve that by utilizing technology as an enabler in harnessing traditional freight forwarders with solutions that allow them to provide better customer experience, collaborate with others and compete against bigger players in the industry.

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