NYK developing its own digital currency to pay crew
Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) will soon introduce its own digital currency to pay its crew, Bloomberg is reporting. The digital currency will be pegged to the US dollar. Details of the new payment project such as whether it will use blockchain or be a cryptocurrency variant remain unknown at this stage.
NYK will debut the new currency in the first quarter of next year, and it will be carried out using smartphones, with a view to getting a patent on the technology in order to then offer the service to other owners and managers.
A number of third party tech providers are already offering online crew payments led by ShipMoney and OceanPay, but this initiative by NYK marks the first time Splash has heard of an owner issuing seafarer salaries via an in-house created digital currency.
Good