Abstract

300cubits is a blockchain application that aims to solve the no-show problem in the cargo shipping industry. Its founders, Johnson Leung and Jonathan Lee, are two HKUST alumni with experience in banking and shipping. They have identified a pain point, in the cargo shipping industry which does not require a pre-shipping cash deposit, results in no-show and cargo roll-over problems. They developed a new Ethereum based cryptocurrency, TEU, to serve as such collateral. They then conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) pre-sale in September 2017, and an official ICO in April 2018. However, the ICO failed to raise a lot of capital. However, the uptake of TEU tokens was very slow in the industry. They are now pondering the next steps forward.

Learning Objectives

The primary learning objectives of this case are:

- To understand blockchain and its various forms, including Bitcoin and Ethereum

- To identify and explain the potential applications of blockchains, and the alternative financing strategies to implement, and such innovations

- To analyze blockchain strategies