BLOC Bags MIT Award for Shipping Emissions MRV Solution

Blockchain Labs for Open Collaboration (BLOC), has won Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Solve’s Coastal Communities Challenge, for its work in developing shipping Emissions Monitoring Reporting (MRV) solutions.

The Blockchain technology and governance specialist said in a press release that it was selected from 33 teams participating in the Solve Challenge Finals, which included a live pitch event at the UN General Assembly week in New York City.

The Solver teams were selected by Solve’s Challenge Leadership Group judges as the most promising set of solutions tackling large-scale global challenges.

BLOC’s Shipping Emissions Monitoring Verification and Reporting (MRV) solution focuses on building digital infrastructure to enhance coastal community health and safety through traceability of shipping emissions.

BLOC’s solution will secure the chain of custody for marine fuel data using blockchain in a real-world setting, thereby creating a decision support system for enforcing and complying with global environmental regulations, including the upcoming IMO 2020 Sulphur cap, which will see the international shipping industry switch from using highly polluting Heavy Fuel Oil. In doing so, the Emissions MRV application builds upon the Marine Fuel Assurance prototype funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation as part of BLOC’s Maritime Blockchain Labs (MBL) initiative.

MIT Solve’s Executive Director, Alex Amouyel, commented: “We are incredibly inspired by each new Solver selected at Solve Challenge Finals as they advance solutions to four of the world’s biggest challenges. We had incredible diversity of solutions—nonprofits, for-profits, academic projects, all ages, and over 110 countries were represented. The judges had the difficult task of choosing the most promising ones.”