Deloitte Taps Polkadot Ecosystem's Kilt Blockchain for Digital Shipping Logistics

BANGALORE, India — A division of professional services firm Deloitte, one of the “Big Four” accounting firms, will use the Polkadot-based Kilt blockchain to offer logistics and supply-chain services focused on the shipping industry.

Ingo Rube, founder of the KILT Protocol, told CoinDesk in a fireside chat at the India Blockchain Week conference that Deloitte is working with Nexxiot, a supply-chain technology company, to offer a new type of logistics service called KYX.

KYX is a combination of Know Your Client (KYC) and Know Your Cargo – two processes that identify and verify the client's identity and their shipped goods, respectively. This system is built on the Kilt network.

"Using decentralized and open-source solutions 'Built on KILT,' any entity could create a service built on a blockchain without having to deal with cryptocurrencies or needing blockchain experience," Rube said in a statement.

KILT Protocol’s native kilt (KILT) tokens are up 2.5% in the past 24 hours, data shows.

Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd will be the first to implement KYX, followed by telecommunications giant Vodafone. Hapag-Lloyd is said to be equipping some 1.5 million containers with devices that can tracked to show that they are secure and have not been opened.

Computing giant IBM (IBM) previously undertook a project to improve supply-chain services in shipping using blockchain technology. IBM combined with shipping giant Maersk to form TradeLens in 2018 but shut it down in November 2022 due to a lack of commercial take-up.

Where the closing down of TradeLens coincided with the depths of the bear market - occurring the same month as FTX's collapse - such enterprise projects may now start to emerge again as the crypto and blockchain industry appears to be entering its next bull run.

Deloitte's work in blockchain technology goes back several years. In 2019, it unveiled a plug-and-play product for enterprises to develop blockchain-based services for clients. Earlier this year, the company became one of several participants in fintech firm Digital Asset's interoperable network providing a decentralized infrastructure for institutional clients, alongside BNP Paribas (BNP), Cboe Global Markets (CBOE), Goldman Sachs (GS), among others.

UPDATE (Dec. 07, 15:55 UTC): Adds paragraphs on IBM's TradeLens project and background on Deloitte's blockchain work.