# Managing electronic ocean bills of lading securely

> Wave BL Inc. developed and piloted a blockchain-based platform for electronic bills of lading in commercial container shipping alongside partners such as carrier MSC. The platform facilitates the paperless and secure transfer of cargo title documents among shippers, ocean carriers, and financial institutions. This eliminates reliance on physical courier services for paper originals while mitigating fraud risks during cargo release.

**Sector:** Tertiary sector · **Industry:** Shipping and maritime transport · **Organisation:** Wave BL Inc. · **Maturity level:** Production

Canonical URL: https://www.sapientblock.com/en/use-cases/wave-bl-elektronische-konnossemente-seefrachtverkehr-faelschungssicher-verwalten

## Documentation status

- **Project status:** Production
- **Evidence:** Evidence medium
- **Editorial review:** pending

## Description

Wave BL Inc. has developed a platform that allows electronic bills of lading in international sea transport to be exchanged legally and digitally. Until now, bills of lading had to be printed on paper and flown around the world by courier so that recipients could release their goods at the port. By using decentralized blockchain ledgers, the transfer of ownership of these documents is digitally traceable, tamper-proof, and completed within seconds.

The Canadian company Wave BL Inc. addresses one of the oldest bottlenecks in global maritime trade: the paper-based bill of lading. Since this document certifies ownership of the loaded cargo as a security, simple digital transmission by PDF was legally and security-wise insufficient. Wave BL therefore uses a blockchain architecture based on smart contracts, which ensures that each document has exactly one lawful owner at any given time and cannot be duplicated. In cooperation with major shipping companies such as MSC, over one hundred thousand electronic bills of lading have already been processed on the platform. Additionally, a joint pilot with the Swift network and five global banks demonstrated that the solution integrates smoothly into worldwide trade finance processes.

## Benefits

- Accelerated processing of letters of credit and trade finance with banks
- Reduction of demurrage charges at ports through timely availability of shipping documents
- Seamless connection to communication channels such as the Swift network
- Reduction of document transfer time from several days to a few minutes
- Complete protection against document forgery and unauthorised cargo release
- Elimination of courier costs for worldwide transport of physical paper originals
- Elimination of manual sorting and dispatch work for physical documents
- Real-time insight into the current ownership and release status of cargo

## Challenges

- Need for system integration into existing booking and ERP landscapes
- Interoperability between different private eBL platforms
- Inconsistent legal framework for recognition of electronic negotiable documents worldwide
- Requirement for comprehensive participation of all actors along the transport chain
- Transition from familiar paper-based release processes to cryptographic signatures

## Technology foundation

The solution uses an Ethereum-compatible blockchain infrastructure with smart contracts to cryptographically guarantee ownership and legally secure transfer of electronic bills of lading without a central control authority.

## Sources

- [Blockchain success story: MSC partner WAVE BL electronic bills of lading](https://www.ledgerinsights.com/blockchain-msc-wave-bl-electronic-bills-of-lading-ebl/)
- [WaveBL completes blockchain-based POV with Swift and five leading banks](https://www.fintechstrategy.com/blog/2024/10/17/wavebl-completes-blockchain-based-pov-with-swift-and-five-leading-banks/)