NEW YORK

IBM and Danish transport company Maersk said they were working together to digitise, manage, and track shipping transactions using blockchain technology.

The technology, which powers the digital currency bitcoin, enables data sharing across a network of individual computers.

It has gained worldwide popularity due to its usefulness in recording and keeping track of assets or transactions across all industries. The blockchain solution being built by the two companies is expected to be made available to the ocean shipping industry later this year, according to a joint statement from International Business Machines Corp and the container unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk. It would help manage and track the paper trail of tens of millions of shipping containers globally by digitising the supply chain process from end to end. (Reuters)