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Bringing Document Ownership and Transfers to the Blockchain - Interview With CargoX Founder and CEO Stefan Kukman

4y ago
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Interview with CargoX founder and CEO Štefan Kukman

At CoinCodex, we've had the pleasure to speak to Štefan Kukman, the founder and CEO of the CargoX project. CargoX is developing a platform that uses blockchain technology to facilitate secure and confidential transfers of document ownership, as well as transactions involving the documents themselves. The CargoX platform has applications in numerous industries, including logistics, manufacturing, finance, trading and many other areas.

The CargoX platform

Here's what Mr. Kukman had to say about where the CargoX project is positioned at the moment and what we can expect from them moving forward.

Štefan Kukman

To start off, could you give us a brief introduction about what CargoX (CXO) is and what it tries to accomplish?

The CargoX Platform is a Blockchain Document Transfer platform. It is built atop the Ethereum neutral public blockchain, to enable logistics, financial, manufacturing, trading, energy, and services companies, along with governmental & regulatory agencies, to transfer original documents - and at the same time, transfer the ownership of these documents. 

This enables all these organizations to digitalize their original document processes, while at the same time keeping the needed business confidentiality and upgraded auditability. 

What is important, especially in these times of Covid-19, is that the platform enables distributed teamwork even with assets that would normally have to be handled manually in the corporate office environment!

How did the project come about?

We had the idea for the platform when I and some partners worked in the ocean shipping industry. That is where a Bill of Lading is one of the most important documents - the ship line operator issues the document when the exporter puts the transported goods onto the ship, and then the document is sent in paper form, through courier services, to the recipient or importer. They need the document to receive the transported goods from the ship - the shipping line will otherwise not release the goods, as they could not know who the real owner is, without the document.

So, when blockchain emerged, especially the Ethereum planetary computer, if we can call it that - I had the ‘a-ha!’ moment. We built the whole idea around this, and the rest is history. We built the MVP, then we improved it further - today, it is known as the CargoX Platform. We received numerous international awards and important nominations. 

You launched the CargoX ICO at the beginning of the bear market (Jan 2018), when most of us thought the price drop was just a minor setback. Why use an ICO for such a B2B-oriented project and not go the traditional way instead? How did the year-long bear market affect the progress of CXO?

We believe in the mechanisms the ICO provides, and we wanted to combine our idea and our industry knowledge and software development skills with the financial potential of the crypto markets. We believed that the idea was good and that it should provide people with a good opportunity!

Two years later, when crypto markets have been more dynamic than anybody expected, there is much to analyze - but our idea, and the platform that we built, is here just at the right time, when all companies in the world are speeding up their original document workflow digitalization efforts. 

You started trading the CXO token in Feb 2018 and it soon dropped below the ICO price of $0.10. At the moment, it’s showing a negative return compared to the ICO price, yet there are still approx. 3,700 holders. What is the key factor of the support you’re still enjoying?

The support is based on the fact that we were one of the few ICO projects that had a real idea to solve the real problems of some of the world’s biggest companies, as well as on the fact that there is still a big expectation of how the token dynamics will work out when the use of the platform goes high up. 

How much of the $7M you raised in the ICO is still “in the bank”? How long can you run the project without any revenue with the current burn rate? What was the biggest expense to date?

Such financial details are not something we are able to discuss in public, as such discussion might influence the markets, but it might also give our competitors, customers, and partners an unrealistic picture. 

For sure we can say that the CargoX Platform development, in terms of software development, was the largest cost - and because the idea and product were good, we were able to be rational with our marketing efforts. The prizes, nominations, and acclamations by the most notable conferences and startup competition events, and recognition by the international Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs (insurer clubs), as well as invitations to collaborate with the World Economic Forum, the European Directorate Generale for Mobility and Transport Digitalisation of Transport and Logistics Forum, and other institutions, have all helped us win public recognition and approval.

Where do you see the project in the future? Will you be able to introduce CargoX solutions to the big players like MSC, APM-Maersk, COSCO, and others?

We are proud of our business development team, which has worked hard and won the attention of numerous large-scale players in the field. But, sales in B2B are not just based on the pitch of the platform - the enterprise environment is wary, so they test, evaluate, integrate, re-test, then they go through their multi-level decision-making and re-evaluation processes. Once you stand at the doorstep of the largest corporations, this turns into a maze of interests. 

However, the crisis has pushed many of them onto an accelerated path of digitization and innovation. We are proud of our partners G2 Ocean, the largest break bulk carrier in the world, with more than 130 open-hatch vessels, and of our latest efforts to help the Government of India digitalize the document processes in some of their largest processes. That effort is still in the early stages, but the GoI is decisive in its intent to transform - to keep an edge on Covid-19, and also to succeed in global trade markets. 

How will you achieve this? In other words, what do you think gives CargoX an edge over the current system and the competition, if it exists?

We are proud to be present and noted in the market with the largest players, such as IBM/Maersk TradeLens, and others. 

There are currently five other relevant vendors of similar solutions, but each offers a set of features and advantages that might be slightly different. 
We have built the platform since the beginning on neutral, open, public blockchain infrastructure - that is why the Ethereum network and the IPFS (interplanetary file system) are a good match for us.

We have also invested a lot of time into research so as to enable the easiest way to use the platform to the users in businesses where digitalization is slow and complex solutions do not stand a chance. So we have combined the basic concepts of email, banking, and document functionalities into an easy-to-use platform. But big corporations can quickly integrate it through 100% REST API functionality coverage. 

Why put the Bill of Lading on the blockchain? Why not use an electronic system that is centralized and does the same job?

A centralized system always offers a single point of attack, so if somebody wanted to hack into the system and cause chaos for customers, it would be easy to do. Unauthorized entry into centralized or corporate systems does not always happen intentionally - there are cases of ransomware attacks hitting the largest shipping line operators. 

They can all avoid this with public blockchain transfer of ownership of their documents. We put a lot of thought into security,so we could prevent what happened, for example, to Maersk three years ago when their system was hacked and they had to shut down some port terminals - that cost them 300 million USD, and disrupted operations for 2 weeks. But there are other cases as well! 

What have been the biggest challenges along the way? Is there anything else you would have done differently in retrospect? Which was the biggest mistake you made that comes to mind? On the other hand, what is the project's biggest achievement?

Any person who works also makes mistakes, that is for sure! What we rely on is a team of impeccable experts who share not only their insights, but also their opinions. 

Our biggest achievement for sure is the CargoX Platform idea and realization. That led to us being nominated as prestigious SXSW 2019 Pitch finalists, winners of two awards - Most Innovative Solution 2019 and Blockchain Innovation of the Year 2019 at the Transport & Logistics Middle East by a panel of global experts (against TradeLens, Panalpina Pharma, Digital Silk Road initiative), nominees at the Financial Times Intelligent Business 2018 Awards, winners at the International Road Transportation World Congress Startup Competition (against 77 startups), listed as a 2020 FreightTech 100 company (among Amazon, Tesla, and similar), and winners of the #DataccionConnect Blockchain Innovation Award. 

Can you give some details about the team behind the project? How many are working full-time on the project?

The CargoX team is a multidisciplinary group of experts in the fields of logistics, finance, software development, and sales - and we are an international team, mixing different types of contracts. Being an agile startup helps us grow and adjust dynamically, as we take our steps on the path of transformation into a fully grown business enterprise. 

What are the most important upcoming milestones for CargoX? What about your long-term prospects?

Providing services to corporate customers is sometimes contracted with non-disclosure agreements, so we cannot disclose all the big moves we might be working on. But one thing that was already announced is our proof of concept to digitalize the original document transfers for the ports under the sponsorship of the Government of India. This is something we are focusing on now, among other larger projects that are not yet ready to be announced. 

What do you predict the price of Bitcoin to be on Jun 30 and Dec 31, 2020?

Oh, it is really hard to predict, especially the future! I would rather not speculate. But I personally think Bitcoin is here to stay and the value will grow in the long run - just don’t quote me on that, haha. 

Anything else you'd like our readers to know?

Yes! We believe that it is important to believe in an idea, and if you put enough work behind it, it is bound to succeed. I, and the CargoX team, strongly believe that we are on the right path, and we are always humbly aware of how this project has started, as a unique project with huge global potential. That is what we are working toward - to grow and make that potential work for everyone involved!

It is important to note that we are actively shifting the main paradigm in supply chains here. Paper trail processes were in place for the last 600 years, and now companies are rapidly digitalizing their workflows. Not only because digital is easier, faster, and more transparent - but because supply chains are vital if we want our lives to go on with any sense of normalcy. 

We'd like to thank Mr. Kukman for agreeing to the interview and providing thorough and thoughtful answers!


If you're a CXO holder, don't forget to follow the token in real time on CoinCodex.

4y ago
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2

bearish:

3

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