Previously, there was a case of forged bill of lading in the industry: a logistics company in Shenzhen had advanced 40 million yuan in the case of a bill of lading, when he went to a terminal to pick up the goods, he was told that the goods had been picked up, and at the same time, the overseas ** businessman had "run away"!The problem lies with the bill of lading, and the company has been caught in a fraudulent incident of forging a bill of lading. What is a bill of lading?The bill of lading is a traditional document that dates back to the 17th century. At that time, the form of maritime ** has undergone a change from the integration of ships and merchants to the separation of ship dealers, when the goods are handed over to the shipowner, the shipowner will issue a certificate of receipt of the goods, which is the prototype of the bill of lading. Subsequently, the bill of lading has undergone a number of changes in form and function, and finally evolved into not only the receipt of goods issued by the carrier to the consignor after receiving the goods, the certificate of the contract of carriage signed by the carrier, and one of the valid documents for customs declaration and inspection, but also represents the ownership of the goods, can be used for sale or mortgage, and is one of the important documents for international settlement. However, it is unimaginable that decades after the launch of the Internet, many bills of lading continue the physical transfer method of paper records 4 centuries ago, and the original bill of lading relies on many stakeholders to print, seal and sign before it can be transported from origin to destination by mail, which is not only costly, but also prolongs the circulation time, and is very prone to the risk of error, damage and loss, and due to the large number of relevant parties in the middle, the bill of lading can even be tampered with and falsified. At the same time, for paper bills of lading, it is difficult for the consignor to distinguish the authenticity of the bill of lading only by relying on the naked eye, and in the above case, the bank that delivered the bill of lading only conducts a formal review of the bill of lading, which gives room for fraud. However, the fraudulent incident of forged bills of lading is not an isolated case. 
Electronic bills of lading reinvent international**
Obviously, these complications can be avoided with transparent and accessible digital files. At present, electronic bills of lading, especially those using blockchain technology, are replacing paper carriers and reshaping international processes. For example, the IQAX EBL digital solution launched by an international IT company and IQAX uses blockchain technology to further accelerate this digital process. As of early December this year, more than 100,000 copies of IQAX EBL electronic bills of lading have been issued. The electronic bill of lading is more cost-effective than the paper bill of lading, can reduce labor and logistics costs, and has the characteristics of instantaneous delivery, safer, faster, and more low-carbon and environmentally friendlyIn addition, compared with other forms of electronic bills of lading, blockchain electronic bills of lading have the advantages of being traceable to information nodes at any time, tampering and trusting. IQAX EBL is based on a blockchain network designed for the shipping industry, and is unique in terms of data supervision and authorization, such as only allowing authorized parties to publish and use shipping-related information, ensuring the authenticity and uniqueness of the bill of lading, and promoting cross-border facilitation while safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of cargo owners. Shenzhen Haiqiao Logistics, a third-party logistics company that integrates import and export shipping, customs declaration and inspection, warehousing and distribution integrated business services covering the world, believes that electronic bills of lading are the general trend of future shipping development, but only electronic platforms that give priority to the user experience at different levels can become products recognized by customers and respected by the market. Fast aging, high efficiency and simple operationThese three advantages, so that Shenzhen Haiqiao Logistics has become the beneficiary of IQAX EBL, which said that this is also the key factor for IQAX EBL to expand the electronic bill of lading market in the future, "IQAX EBL platform page is very concise and clear, compared with similar products, I can see the whole process of bill of lading circulation and the corresponding electronic bill of lading status and ownership and other basic information that other platforms do not have, which greatly reduces the difficulty coefficient of freight forwarding to manage bills of lading." For end customers, the ease of transferring bills of lading in just 1-2 steps is a plus for the IQAX EBL platform. "It is understood that from the current market of the mainstream electronic bill of lading platform, IQAX EBL covers the container and non-container fields, supports the relevant parties to carry out electronic documents at the same time as the circulation of bills of lading, and supports the transfer of bills of lading under different payment methods, suitable for various business scenarios, while providing a bird's-eye view of the whole process, by integrating all key information such as logistics details, bill of lading circulation records and bank processing into a single view, so that the platform interface information is more intuitive and transparent.
The general trend is to open up the last pass of 100% digitization of bills of lading
Although the electronic bill of lading has been the general trend, compared with the paper bill of lading, its proportion is not high at present, what hinders the popularization of the electronic bill of lading?First of all, the laws and regulations of some countries and regions require the use of traditional paper bills of ladingIn addition, the shipping industry involves many stakeholders, such as buyers and sellers, ship owners, port terminals, banks, insurance, technology platforms, etc., subject to a large number of national and regional laws, and the participants span the globe, lack of uniform standards and interoperability, and it is difficult for parties to exchange electronic bills of lading seamlessly;In particular, the electronic bill of lading in the 90s only adopted the digital transmission mode, and the lack of security and trust mechanism led to many people's concerns about the interoperability of the electronic bill of lading technology and platform, and the legitimacy and recognition of the electronic bill of lading were insufficient. At present, many countries are speeding up relevant legislation. In 2021, Singapore passed the Singapore Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Act, which allows the digitization of cross-border** documents;In August this year, in order to accelerate the development of multimodal transport "one single system" and "one box system", China put forward opinions on promoting the development of international multimodal electronic bills of ladingOn September 20 this year, the UK came into force the Electronic Documents Act (2023), the most significant legislation on bills of lading in 30 years, which means that electronic bills of lading have the same legal effect as paper bills of lading in appropriate circumstances. At the same time,The electronic bill of lading industry is establishing a corresponding trust mechanism through encryption technology and other means. In addition, financial institutions have also begun to deeply participate in the international digitalization process, for example, many banks have participated in the cooperation with IQAX EBL blockchain electronic bill of lading platform, which is equivalent to opening up the last pass for banks to process the whole process of international settlement electronically, connecting traders, shipping companies, banks and other participants, among which banks can quickly obtain bill of lading data through the blockchain network, simplify the original process of bill of lading, and speed up the first circulation. In June this year, a Chinese chemical importer imported valuable chemical raw materials from Saudi Arabia, and the bill of lading was issued only one month after the goods were loaded at the port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Fortunately, the importer had previously decided to replace the paper bill of lading with the IQAX EBL electronic bill of lading, which included the services of Bank of China, and the process of related procedures was greatly simplified. On the same day after the importer** endorsed and entrusted the goods to the Bank of China Shanghai Branch, the Guangdong Branch of the Bank of China, which was responsible for receiving and releasing the goods, and the importer obtained the bill of lading voucher to avoid the detention of the valuable goods. 
ConclusionIn the past two or three years, the interruption of the ** chain caused by the congestion of the world's major ports has caused extensive discussion in the industry. Among them, epidemics, wars and other emergencies have caused the cancellation of flights to transport relevant ** documents for these containers. However, the customs and other departments of some countries will use the bill of lading as one of the verification documents for the goods, and the goods cannot be released without the bill of lading, which further aggravates the congestion at the port. This situation has brought huge challenges and losses to many enterprises participating in the international **. Shippers have had to increase turnover costs, and some seasonal commodities have been lost due to the inability to deliver on time. In addition, the loss of the original bill of lading may also lead to a fine imposed by the shipowner, which is not a new incident, if the value of the goods involved is higher, the fine may be huge, which is directly related to the survival of a small business. The advent of electronic bill of lading platforms, such as IQAX EBL, is changing these conditions and winning business opportunities for businesses internationally. Through the efficient circulation of electronic bills of lading, shippers can further improve their planning and management capabilities of the first chain, and improve the safety, reliability and circulation efficiency of the international first chain, which is of extraordinary significance for the health and development of the global first chain.