The Canada Border Services Agency and the Port of Montreal have signed on for a trial run of a technology that aims to streamline freight shipping using the power of blockchain.

The federal customs agency and the country’s second-biggest port said they’re dipping their toes into a digital database that functions as a “distributed ledger,” sharing and syncing up data from ocean carriers, ports and wholesalers from Singapore to Peru.

But tugging the shipping world into the digital age could incur headwinds, as data sharing depends on co-operation among competitors and security remains an open question, experts say...

This was excerpted from the 25 October 2018 edition of the Canadian Shipper.