April 30, 2018 - BDP and Chain.io announced today that BDP will participate as a launch partner in Vault by Chain.io, a compliance blockchain solution for logistics service providers and their customers.
Available today, Vault is a secure, blockchain-backed digital locker for critical supply chain compliance records. BDP’s leadership, as part of their ongoing commitment to implementing innovative solutions, recognized the unique advantages offered by Vault and the enhanced security it provides against inquiries made by government auditors months or years in the future.
“Most of the world’s commerce is managed by text-based electronic documents like EDI and XML or scanned images,” said Brian Glick, CEO of Chain.io. “Unfortunately, those records are all highly susceptible to manipulation after the fact and are an auditor’s nightmare. Vault by Chain.io solves this problem by providing a permanent, timestamped fingerprint derived from the data itself. If a single letter in a document or pixel in an image is changed, then the fingerprint is immediately invalid. Adding the Ethereum blockchain to this equation prevents manipulation of the fingerprint itself.”
Vault by Chain.io is capable of storing archival-grade, encrypted records within the Chain.io Cloud Execution Platform while simultaneously publishing an unchangeable fingerprint on the public Ethereum blockchain. The fingerprint is completely anonymous and contains no identifying information about the underlying transaction. It can be provided to auditors, government agencies, and other regulatory bodies to prove the date and authenticity of any electronic record. Publishing the fingerprint on the blockchain ensures the integrity of what is stored remains intact; any attempted change is noted and the record invalidated.
“As a global logistics provider, BDP seeks to deliver innovative and dynamic service solutions to our customers, with compliance playing a major part in their evolving needs,” said Michael Ford, BDP’s Chief Compliance Officer. “The simplicity of integrating Vault with our existing platforms provides our customers with the option of having an additional level of compliance with no extra effort on their part.”
Vault by Chain.io is well suited to store highly critical compliance information, including: sourcing records, environmental chain of custody information, tariff classification support, vendor security audits, general commercial documents and more.
“Seeing blockchain solutions come to fruition with immediate, real-world use cases is a watershed moment for technological progress, and — as Vault demonstrates — is having an immediate and powerful influence on our industry practices,” said Brian Kautz, BDP’s Chief Information Officer. “These solutions are here today, and the onus is on us to provide our customers access to these impactful product offerings.”
Shippers, logistics service providers (LSPs), and trade software providers can integrate their existing solutions with Vault using only a few lines of code to push documents to a secure FTP site. Vault does not require all-or-nothing engagement. Instead, it allows companies to selectively participate with customers and documents of their choosing, easing into the blockchain without disrupting existing business processes or retraining IT staff.
BDP customers can begin utilizing Vault solutions in the coming months.
