NACRE: Decentralized Platform for Securing Maritime Certification
What is NACRE
NACRE is a Decentralized Seafarer Certification System that MSC Ship management is deploying internally for its crewing and training services.
As you may already know the issuance, collection, verification, and submission of seafarer certificates is performed manually. This process is time-consuming and not always very secure since physical certificates can be forged. NACRE standardizes and automates the process but most importantly uses blockchain tech to provide shared record keeping, transparency, immutability and tamper-resistance thus guaranteeing the authenticity of the issued certificates.
The NACRE project is designed and implemented through a collaboration of MSC Limassol, Ukraine, Mumbai and Electi Consulting.
Problem Definition
& Scope
Crewing requires seafarers to be certified before accepted onboard. These certificates attest to competences, experience and specialized training.
They can be Certificates issued by or external training providers. Currently, the collection, verification, submission is performed manually and the process us plagued by forgeries.
Evidently, these issues incur a high cost for all stakeholders involved in the process and therefore is a prime target for standardization and automation and process reengineering.
Stakeholders in the System
Conceptual design has identified four main stakeholders/entities:
Certificate Authority (CA): The issuer of the certificate (e.g., governmental agency, shipping company, MTIs)
Governing Body (GB): Responsible to approve the issued certificate and oversee the process of certification (e.g., Port Authority, Ministry)
End-User: Certificate owner (e.g., ship crew member, seafarer)
Verifier (CO): Interested party that needs to verify the certificate provided by the end-user (e.g., crewing department, port authority etc.)
Solution Characteristics
Process mapping has identified several tasks that constitute bottlenecks in the crewing process.
The value primarily lies in the network therefore the solution must be secure and scalable when broadened to involve multiple external partners. The solution leverages blockchain technologies because blockchain possesses some very desirable properties which are suitable for the problem at hand.
01. Shared record keeping
02. Multi-party consensus
03. Transparency and Independent Validation
04. Tamper evidence
05. Tamper resistance
NACRE Platform
NACRE is built on a permissioned Ethereum solution.
The GB, CA and CO use separate web UIs to interact with the blockchain. Seafarers use a dedicated NACRE mobile application to retrieve their certificates from the blockchain and prove their identity.
Value Added and Impact
01. The decentralized and tamper evident/resistant features of blockchain make it ideal for large networks with stakeholders that may not necessarily trust each other
02. Achieve business process reengineering (BPR) for any processes that require exchange of documentation
03. Fast authentication of seafarers and validation of any type of certificate regarding crew training and credentials
04. Marked reduction in cycle times
05. Increased collaboration, transparency and trust among stakeholders
06. Enhanced robustness of maritime transportation
07. Reduced costs resulting from optimised port calls by minimizing delays
08. Overall, increased efficiency and productivity and subsequent marked cost savings for all entities collaborating in a frictionless ecosystem
For more information, please contact us:
nacre@electiconsulting.com
