Source. Reuters/Michel Kooren

Historically, ships that sailed the oceans transporting goods around the world relied on wind and it was not until 1819 that a ship called SS Savannah, partially powered by steam as well as sails, managed to cross the Atlantic. Unfortunately for the health of the planet, we have transitioned from environmentally friendly, wind-powered ships to bunker oil-powered vessels, now coming under pressure to be cleaned up. The most promising solutions are those based on hydrogen, hybrid and battery modules, with these becoming the ‘new norm’ for container ships as clients such as Unilever and Volkswagen increasingly demand for the vessels to be more environmentally sustainable.

Already there are a number of these hybrid solutions in shipping with it now being possible to use more environmentally friendly fuels and to add battery modules to a ship, thus enabling the sailing to or from port without powering up the vessel’s diesel engines. Ports around the world are already investing in solutions to enable ships at dock to be powered by electric drives at the port in an effort to improve air quality and reduce engine noise pollution. California already has air pollution laws restricting container ship emissions in port.

One of the roles offered by Blockchain technology is that of facilitating data to be collected, stored and then shared in order that the end consumers, manufacturers, governments and shipping companies can all access information showing how much carbon is being emitted as goods are transported across the globe. In addition, a further challenge for the shipping industry in reducing its carbon footprint is the quality of the bunker oil it uses. A UK-based company, BunkerTrace, uses a combination of a fuel additive and Blockchain technology to track and trace the bunker oil being used as well as the source from where it comes. This ensures that ships are only using fuel from verifiable and accredited sources. 

As ever, Blockchain technology does not offer a silver bullet solution to solve the challenges of carbon emissions in the shipping industry. However, by using Blockchain technology along with other technologies such as AI, IoT, we are beginning to amass a clearer understanding and greater visibility of those areas requiring a much-needed focus with regards to the long-term health of the planet.

But who would have thought that you would witness the USA being classed alongside countries such as Syria, Iran and North Korea as being banned as the FTX exchange refuses to deal with Americans who would like to get exposure to some of the most successful tech stocks in the USA? Uncle Sam - you need to look at your regulations since, increasingly, you would appear to be no longer the "Land of the Free"....

Buying some, not all of a share

Source: FTX.com

In the UK, if you wanted to buy £100 of Berkshire Hathaway (run by the legendary investors Warren Buffet) it is almost impossible since, if you were to use a traditional stockbroker, the current share price is over £222,000. However, there are other trading platforms that do enable you to buy a fraction of a share such as Berkshire Hathaway broker such as eToro, Plus500 or Trading -212. The UK share trading platforms eToro and Plus500 (as well as Robinhood in the US) have all been hugely successful and taken considerable trading volumes from traditional stockbrokers. These trading platforms have been long term advocates of helping to educate and allow clients to get exposure and trade crypto currencies in different formats.  

The aforementioned platforms, together with exchanges such as FTX, allow investors to trade 24/7 in a selection of assets - cryptos, shares, derivatives and even betting on the outcome of the matters such as the US election. The digitalisation of assets, such as IBM has recently done by issuing $1.6 billion of Thai government bonds or by enabling existing assets e.g. equites in Tesla, Apple etc. that FTX now offers, will potentially transform our existing capital markets. A likely driver for greater digitalisation of assets could well be the fact that improved risk management, stronger compliance controls and monitoring can be achieved. It is not simply within the trading of securities that we are going to see disruption, as according to Deloitte, “Blockchain technology has the potential to wipe Luxembourg off the map of fund distribution and administration market.”

A powerful combination of lower trading costs, greater transparency and less risks for capital markets and the asset manager is sure to attract attentions of the boards of banks, insurance firms and fund managers (as well as regulators) as they collectively begin to understand the benefits of having assets tradable in a digital format.