Distributed Ledger for Wastewater Discharge from ships

Even though members of the public and regulators may be moving full-steam ahead in trying to make the economy and individual industries more sustainable, established practice and procedure inside industries can present challenges for transformation. Four researchers at the University of Dubrovnik in Croatia released a study in 2020 detailing how attempts to make the shipping industry more sustainable and environmentally friendly would be made better by transferring documents and contracts to an online distributed ledger, moving away from an almost entirely paper-based record system that is cumbersome for individuals working on ships and governments. If contracts, ship logs, and records were stored on distributed ledgers, ships could have a central system for tracking and storing documentation, and governments could solicit that information to better get an idea of the kinds of products moving through ports, keep tabs on activity, and better coordinate when ships can “discharge” wastewater. This research and the proposed distributed ledger system would depend on the data being fully shared and widespread in compliance with the rules, as well as a degree of international cooperation since ships coming into ports technically fall under the jurisdiction of a different nation.

Categories

Blockchain, Pollution, Regulation