How Blockchain Is Finding Its Place in Traditional Industries
From shipping’s paperwork crisis to new frontiers in energy and fashion, blockchain has myriad uses and is starting to be deployed across industries.
When you hear “blockchain”, it’s easy to think of cryptocurrency, volatility and headlines. But the real story is far less flashy and far more significant. Across traditional industries with vast, messy, global supply chains, blockchain is steadily moving from experiment to infrastructure. Over the next few years, expect to see it reshape three in particular: shipping (the world’s logistics backbone), energy and utilities and luxury goods and fashion.
The result? A world built on increased speed, transparency and efficiency.
Shipping: more than moving boxes
The global shipping industry is a textbook example of complexity, fragmentation, paperwork and trust issues. Multiple parties — manufacturers, shippers, carriers, ports, customs authorities, freight forwarders and insurers — all coordinate across languages, systems and jurisdictions. With swiftly-changing conditions — weather, politics, war zones — this often results in massive delays, opaque data, duplicate records, fraud risk and escalating costs.
Enter blockchain technology, a distributed ledger that offers a shared, immutable, timestamped record of transactions and events across parties. While blockchain isn’t yet used across the board in shipping, some major players have already begun to adopt it — particularly where the need for trust and traceability is greatest. For those early adopters, the technology is starting to deliver measurable gains in speed, accuracy and transparency.
Major players embracing blockchain
Since 2021 CargoX has powered Egypt’s national Nafeza customs platform, enabling import documentation to move securely on-chain — a system now being explored in India, China and the UAE. The Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), a Hong Kong-based consortium including COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd and Hutchison Ports, is likewise using blockchain — thanks to New Zeland’s TradeWindow — to share verified supply-chain data between carriers and terminals. TradeWindow’s CEO, AJ Smith, said the blockchain technology “supports our vision to facilitate greater digital collaboration, transparency, insights and trust between trade stakeholders along the supply chain, and will initially improve the experience of TradeWindow’s customers via increased visibility of port events.”
Meanwhile, the Port of Rotterdam has piloted blockchain tracking for container movements with Samsung SDS and ABN AMRO, and Insurwave, developed by EY and Guardtime, applies blockchain to marine insurance, reducing duplication and accelerating claims. Together, these initiatives show that blockchain in shipping is no longer theoretical — it’s being tested, refined and slowly woven into the fabric of global logistics.
For the shipping ecosystem, this holds several advantages.
Traceability and transparency: With blockchain, every step of a container’s journey — from load to unloading — can be recorded in near-real time, accessible to authorised participants. This helps everyone monitor status, respond to delays, verify provenance and reduce “blind spots”.
Digital documentation and streamlined customs and trade: Bills of lading, certificates of origin, customs declarations — these have long been paper heavy and error prone. Blockchain allows such documents to be digitised, standardised and shared in real time. This reduces manual data entry and speeds up border crossings. For example, one study estimated up to an 80% reduction in data entry requirements for transport documents in Singapore.
Fraud reduction and provenance: Because the ledger is tamper evident, once recorded, data cannot easily be changed without detection. That helps guard against document forgery, counterfeit goods, mislabelling and other issues.
Operational cost savings and efficiency gains: With fewer intermediaries, fewer manual steps and shared data, shipping operations become cheaper, faster and more predictable.
Challenges to adoption
Despite promising pilots, blockchain in shipping still faces significant hurdles before it can achieve widespread use. One of the industry’s earliest pilot schemes, launched in 2018, TradeLens connected over 100 ports, carriers and customs authorities on a shared blockchain, digitising documentation and reducing customs delays. Despite its success, it was shut down in 2023 after limited industry participation — many rivals were reluctant to join a platform led by Maersk. It proved blockchain could deliver real efficiency, but also highlighted how change in traditional industries is often resisted less by technology than by entrenched habits and competition.
Other issues with adoption? Scalability also remains a key concern. The global shipping ecosystem processes vast amounts of data and transactions every day — from customs records to bills of lading — and blockchain systems must be able to handle this volume without compromising speed or cost-effectiveness.
Pain points
The pain points in global shipping and global logistics (paperwork, trust, fragmentation) are enormous and obvious. And supply-chain traceability is beginning to matter more than ever (driven by customer expectations, regulation, sustainability). As one consultancy put it: blockchain doesn’t replace logistics; it enhances them by creating verified trust. The move toward blockchain has started and will only gather steam in the next five years.
Energy and utilities: blockchain meets kilowatts
While shipping is moving goods, the energy and utilities sector is moving power — and increasingly moving data. Here’s how blockchain is stepping in:
Decentralised energy trading & peer-to-peer networks: With the growth of rooftop solar, batteries, microgrids and distributed generation, the old model (“centralised power plant → grid → consumer”) is shifting. Blockchain allows consumers to trade energy peer-to-peer, automate contracts via smart contracts and settle transactions without relying solely on large utilities.
Tracking renewable credentials / carbon credits: Blockchain’s immutable ledger is ideal for tracking the origin of renewable energy (e.g., guarantees of origin), for recording carbon credit transactions and for enabling transparent verification of sustainability claims. This addresses the rising demand (by regulators, corporates and consumers) for trustworthy green credentials.
Grid-flexibility and “internet of energy” use-cases: Many utilities are exploring IoT + blockchain combinations for real-time grid management, flexible demand response, asset monitoring (transformers, sensors). For example, blockchain can coordinate many small devices and settlements securely without heavy central infrastructure.
Why this matters now
The energy and utilities sector is under intense pressure to transform. Decarbonisation targets, expanding ESG (environmental, social and governance) obligations and the rise of distributed generation — from rooftop solar to community microgrids — are reshaping how energy is produced and consumed. Traditional utilities, meanwhile, are constrained by legacy infrastructure, regulatory complexity and business models built for a centralised grid, not a decentralised one. Blockchain offers a way to layer in new, trust-enabled architectures, helping disparate systems and actors exchange verified data without a single point of control.
For consumers, the questions are changing too — it’s no longer just “Did I get electricity?” but “Was it green? What’s its provenance? Did I pay a fair price?” And with the mounting energy needs of new AI data centres, this transparency will be increasingly necessary. Blockchain provides a transparent way to answer these questions, linking every kilowatt back to its source.
While many companies are running pilots of blockchain for energy trading, renewable certificates and grid flexibility, this sector is not yet as far along as shipping in large-scale deployment. The building blocks, however, are in place and momentum is only growing.
Key things to watch:
Regulatory frameworks for energy trading and markets need to catch up.
Integration with legacy grid infrastructure and processes remains a challenge.
Ensuring cybersecurity and data privacy when numerous devices participate in a blockchain-enabled energy network.
Luxury goods and fashion: provenance and authenticity
Many people are surprised to hear blockchain and luxury handbags mentioned in the same sentence. Yet in an era defined by counterfeits, ethical sourcing and growing consumer demand for transparency, the luxury goods and fashion industries are perfectly positioned to benefit from it. Why? Blockchain allows brands to verify authenticity, trace materials from origin to boutique, and prove the ethical integrity of their supply chains — turning provenance into both a trust mechanism and a massive marketing advantage. The reasons are manifold:
Authenticity and anti-counterfeit
High-value goods (luxury handbags, watches, jewellery) are at high risk of counterfeiting. Blockchain enables brands to record each product’s provenance — raw materials, manufacturing, shipping, ownership transfers — and make that visible (to supply-chain partners and consumers via QR codes or apps). This builds trust and protects brand value.
Ethical sourcing and sustainability credentials
Consumers increasingly care about how and where goods are made, whether materials are conflict-free, whether workers were treated fairly. Blockchain can record and expose these supply-chain details (e.g., origin of gemstones, cotton, leather), helping brands differentiate and comply with evolving regulation (e.g., due-diligence laws).
The Aura Blockchain Consortium
Case in point: The AURA Consortium was created by LVMH, Prada Group and Cartier (part of Richemont) to bring a unified, industry-wide approach to authenticity, transparency and sustainability in the luxury sector. Built as a non-profit alliance, it provides member brands with a shared blockchain infrastructure that assigns each product a unique digital identity, or “product passport”.
This passport records every step of an item’s lifecycle — from the sourcing of raw materials to manufacturing, distribution and even resale — allowing customers to verify provenance, track ownership, and access after-sales services such as repairs and warranties. By making this information securely available through QR codes or NFC tags, Aura helps luxury houses prove ethical sourcing, combat counterfeiting and comply with emerging EU digital product passport regulations. In essence, it turns blockchain into a tool for both brand trust and circularity, strengthening the relationship between makers, buyers and the planet.
Supply-chain transparency and returns and resale markets
Blockchain use has also moved beyond the premium luxury market. Blockchain helps brands reveal the journey of a garment (materials → factory → shipment) and even enable traceability in resale markets (“this bag was made in 2022, owned by one previous user, here is its certificate of authenticity”). And it’s happening fast. Digital product passports are set to become mandatory for textiles within the European Union starting in 2026.
Why this matters now
For luxury and fashion brands, the stakes have never been higher. Reputational damage can be swift and severe if consumers uncover unethical sourcing or opaque supply chains. At the same time, the resale and second-hand luxury markets are booming, making authenticity and provenance central to brand value and consumer trust.
Regulatory and ESG pressures are also intensifying — particularly with the EU’s supply-chain due diligence laws, which require companies to demonstrate ethical and sustainable practices throughout their operations. In this context, blockchain offers a clear competitive advantage: transparent, verifiable records that prove where materials come from and how products move through the supply chain.
What all three industries have in common
Across shipping, energy and luxury fashion, several shared themes stand out. Each sector faces fragmentation and a lack of trust, with multiple parties, legacy systems and siloed data making collaboration difficult. In all three, traceability and provenance have become business imperatives — whether tracking goods, energy flows, or materials, knowing who did what, when, and where builds both efficiency and confidence.
Paperwork-heavy processes and intermediary layers are also ripe for disruption, and blockchain excels at providing a single, verifiable source of truth, thus reducing duplication and enabling automation through smart contracts.
Meanwhile, regulation, sustainability and stakeholder expectations are intensifying, pushing organisations to demonstrate ethical sourcing and transparency. Importantly, this shift represents a transition rather than a wholesale replacement: most companies are embedding blockchain alongside existing systems, creating hybrid models that blend innovation with operational continuity.
What should business-leaders do now?
Identify the pain‐points where trust, documentation or fragmentation are most acute. Start with processes that bring high cost, risk and low transparency.
Pilot rather than deploy big-bang. As we’ve seen in shipping, many platforms began as pilot initiatives (ports, carriers, customs bodies) and grew.
Think ecosystem — not just company. Blockchain’s value lies in shared data among parties who may not fully trust each other. That means bringing supply-chain partners, regulators and customers along.
Ensure governance, standards and interoperability. Without shared standards and alignment across actors, blockchain projects risk remaining islands.
Focus on business value (not just tech). The conversation should be: “How do we reduce lead times? How do we reduce fraud? How do we improve transparency and brand value?” — not just “We’ll use blockchain”.
Be aware of hurdles. These include scalability, data privacy, regulatory ambiguity, integration with legacy systems. Prepare for them, don’t ignore them.
Communicate success stories. Especially in sectors like luxury/fashion, consumers may care about the story behind the product. Use blockchain-enabled traceability as a marketing asset as well as an operational one.
Not a silver bullet
Blockchain won’t fix everything overnight. But for industries built on complexity, trust challenges, paper‐intensive workflows and global networks — shipping, energy and fashion included — it offers a new paradigm: shared truth, digital trust and traceability.
For the Copy Guild blog audience — whether you’re writing for logistics firms, utilities companies, brand-owners or their advisors — the core message is this: blockchain is no longer curiosity theatre. It’s becoming a practical tool for transformation. And the time to understand, experiment and build the capability is now.