A CBDC trial in Hong Kong could finally enable blockchain to digitise shipping, with help from Ant Group

Hong Kong’s Global Shipping Business Network has finished a prototype of its first electronic bill of lading in collaboration with Ant’s ZAN blockchain unit

The product is part of Hong Kong’s wholesale central bank digital currency project and aims to digitise a process that has been paper-based for centuries

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Trucks passing through containers at the Hong Kong Container Terminal, situated in the Kwai Chung-Tsing Yi basin on May 17, 2019. Photo: SCMP / Roy Issa

Published: 7:00am, 20 Mar 2024Updated: 5:11pm, 21 Mar 2024

With the recent launch of its first prototype product in collaboration with fintech giant Ant Group, Hong Kong-based Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) aims to prove that blockchain can fully digitise a critical process in the shipping industry that has remained stubbornly paper-based for centuries.

GSBN – a non-profit consortium whose shareholders include shipping industry stakeholders such as Cosco Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd and OOCL – last week finished a prototype electronic bill of lading (eBL) to be used as part of Hong Kong’s wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) project, CEO Bertrand Chen told the Post in an interview on March 13.

Since its founding in April 2021, GSBN has been on a mission to use blockchain to digitally transform the global shipping industry and bring it into the 21st century. That effort received a big boost when the Hong Kong Monetary Authority named eBL as one of the six use cases in its wCBDC sandbox Project Ensemble launched earlier this month.

“I think right now in the world, there’s probably only two locations where the regulators somewhat have a plan or vision of how to do this right,” Chen said. “And I think it’s Hong Kong and Dubai.”

Hong Kong’s position as a maritime centre and financial hub, along with policy support for blockchain and virtual assets, makes it uniquely placed to embrace this opportunity, according to the executive.

The eBL prototype is already being used in the wCBDC project, according to Ant Group’s ZAN, the blockchain GSBN uses for the product. GSBN struck the partnership last November with Ant, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.