Seafarers in Asia will no longer have to go through the hassle of bringing their documents to their ships after an ingenious use of distributed ledger technology (DLT). A report by the Manila Times says that the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP) has opened an e-wallet to contain the credentials of the cadets using blockchain technology.
All cadet records can be scanned using a QR code and will be valid for the 2022-2023 academic year. The launch coincides with the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Nautical Institute, held on November 18.
“It’s very difficult to hack. So, what we’re doing is all our cadets now, their certificates will have a QR code. There’s a photo taken [these], and they are loaded into the e-wallet of the Cadet. The cadets will only show their e-wallets to show their certificates,” said Vice Admiral Eduardo Ma R. Santos, MAAP president.
As an added layer of security, cadets cannot alter records in the e-wallet while the details are backed up on MAAP’s central server. The agency stressed that seafarers can use the e-wallet for life, but ship owners and staffing firms may be charged for using the service.
The MAAP president expressed optimism that the success of the e-wallet could catalyze other maritime institutions to adopt distributed ledgers as one way to digitize their operations. Through the offer, the need for seafarers to bear the risk of damage to their documents by transporting them to sea is eliminated.
Southeast Asia embrace DLT
Southeast Asia has been one of the leading regions in terms of DLT adoption, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse contributing to the metric. In the Philippines, 89% of the working class population is moving office operations to the metaverse, according to research from Ciena.
“85% of Filipino respondents can envision their organizations introducing a virtual reality space platform into their existing work processes, and more than two-thirds (69%) think their organizations will move away from their current static collaboration tools to a more immersive or virtual reality-based environment in the next three years,” read the report.
The Philippine Blockchain Council has been launched to promote DLT adoption in the country with the lofty goal of being the “blockchain capital of Asia.” Tech firms are increasingly pushing for DLT, and Twala is leading the charge by offering digital ID cards.
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