IBM, Maersk Snuff Blockchain Project Due to Lack of Interest

IBM and Maersk are canning supply chain project TradeLens after four years, raising questions about the viability of enterprise blockchains

article-image

Source: Dall-e

share

IBM and Danish shipping giant Maersk are scuttling a four-year-old enterprise blockchain project designed to track global trade — another hint that distributed ledger solutions may not yet be viable in the wild.

TradeLens is a blockchain-based logistics platform aimed at digitizing supply chains. It was launched in 2018, a time when multiple economic sectors, including global shipping, sought to revamp various processes with centralized blockchain solutions — most of the time without associated cryptocurrencies.

Hundreds of major companies had signed on to TradeLens at its height. Those included intermodal carriers such as BNSF Logistics and major port operator MSC — the second largest shipping company after Maersk.

TradeLens will be ending by the close of Q1, 2023, the companies said in a Tuesday statement.

“Unfortunately, while we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved,” Rotem Hershko, Maersk’s head of business platforms, said.

As such, TradeLens has been unable to attain the level of commercial viability required to continue operating. The project ultimately fell short of financial expectations, undermining its future as a standalone business.

TradeLens was built on IBM proprietary blockchain software which leveraged Hyperledger Fabric, an open-source framework from the Linux Foundation.

Enterprise blockchain networks such as TradeLens are far more centralized than major protocols such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. They’re usually entirely permissioned (private), maintained and controlled by a small group of entities (and often just one), rather than hundreds or thousands of unrelated network participants all working together to maintain consensus.

Jointly built by IBM and GTD Solution — a division of Maersk — TradeLens’ intention was to promote efficiency and secure global trade.

Maersk said it would continue efforts to digitize the supply chain and further industry efficiency using other solutions, without mentioning specifics. Blockworks has reached out for comment.

“We will leverage the work of TradeLens as a stepping stone to further push our digitization agenda and look forward to harnessing the energy and ability of our technology talent in new ways,” Hershko said.

TradeLens joins a number of other enterprise blockchain projects hitting a brick wall. Earlier this month, the Australian Securities Exchange nixed a blockchain-powered system designed to replace its aging settlement layer after nearly three years of development, having spent around $170 million on the cause.

That followed Microsoft ending its Azure blockchain service last year. The platform was launched in 2015 to help companies to deploy their own permissioned blockchain networks.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (2).png

Research

We’re bullish on the PUMP token. We believe Pump.fun's brand strength, existing integrations, product roadmap, and strategic levers justify PUMP's TGE valuation, and expect the token to re-rate meaningfully higher in the months ahead.

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest

article-image

Data shows frontrunning has declined on the network compared to last year

article-image

Industry watchers weigh in on what’s coming for bitcoin, M&A and tokenization before the year wraps

article-image

“We are open 24/7/365, but good luck getting an employee to pick up.”

article-image

BitVM3’s “garbled circuit” approach faces critical security and scaling research before it will be practical

article-image

Big blockers wasted a bitcoin fortune trying to prove a point