CN113689277A

CN113689277A - System and method for providing dynamic pricing for trade finances using IoT

Info

Publication number: CN113689277A
Application number: CN202010425518.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 马克·阿尔伯特·黑尔德
Original assignee: Green Exhibition Holdings Shenzhen Co ltd; Shenzhen Leviathan Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Green Exhibition Holdings Shenzhen Co ltd; Shenzhen Leviathan Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2020-05-19
Filing date: 2020-05-19
Publication date: 2021-11-23

Abstract

A system and method for providing dynamic pricing for trade finances using internet of things (IoT) technology is disclosed. The present invention, referred to herein as shipment tracking, includes a software program that interacts with IoT devices embedded within a shipment to provide delivery status updates to trading financers along the supply chain in real-time. The main objective of the present invention is to accurately assess risk based on real-time data rather than financial trader predictions. It is another object of the present invention to enhance root cause analysis in the event of a transport disruption and to facilitate the drawing of purchasers when the asset successfully navigates to various stages in the supply chain.

Description

System and method for providing dynamic pricing for trade finances using IoT

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to trade finance. More particularly, the present invention relates to utilizing IoT technology to allow financial industry (finners) to more accurately predict the risk of an individual shipment.

Background

Early concepts of IoT smart devices began to emerge as early as 1982, appearing in the modified soda vending machine of the university of carregie Mellon. The machine is considered the first internet-connected device that can report its inventory and inform the customer when the newly loaded beverage is cold. The term IoT is most likely invented by Procter & Gamble, which uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags as part of the IoT system. When more "things or objects" than people are (or will be) connected to the internet, others simply define the IoT as a point. Today, IoT is turning drastically how business operates and how society as a whole operates. With the advent of 5G networks in cities, overall communication with IoT has begun to become faster, and data generated from connected devices helps businesses operate more efficiently, gain insight into business processes, and allow companies to make real-time decisions. The transportation industry has begun to utilize IoT to manage transportation logistics. US patent US2020074395a1 to Goldmann discloses an IoT for train freight that includes sensors that report problems en route. Chinese patent CN107527176A to the university of south of the river discloses an IoT system for carriers that incorporates an on-board RFID system for supply chain management. Korean patent KR101941613B1 granted to Min-kwan discloses a logistics system of IoT related to cargo ships. While the IoT in the transportation industry continues to evolve, no patent specifically designed for trade financiers has been discovered that is directed to making the supply chain more transparent in order to minimize the logistics cost of prospective purchasers. Currently, the shipping portion of trade finance is a weak link, and in some cases, the financier assumes responsibility for the asset not being reached or damaged. The invention has the advantages of increasing the added value of the accountability system and improving the performance of the link for a long time.

Disclosure of Invention

The devices disclosed and described herein provide a solution to the shortcomings in the prior art by disclosing an IoT software system designed for a trading financier. The present invention includes software that interacts with existing IoT sensing systems strategically located in container ships and cargo aircraft. The object of the present invention is to allow financial traders to "reduce" the risks associated with global bulk freight and to pass these savings to their buyers. Large trade financiers can log in to the software and track the status of shipments on any ship or airliner [ or other mode of transportation ] in real time — as orders pass supply chain checkpoints, they can automatically reduce the projected risk and immediately pass the resulting cost savings to the buyer who will receive the asset at the terminal and port.

Another purpose of the software is to enhance the transparency and ease of handling of the assets during shipment. In some embodiments, the sensors may interact with a "blockchain" module within the software. Block chains were first invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Nakamoto developed software to serve as a common distributed transaction ledger for crypto currency called "bitcoin". The invention of blockchain software for bitcoins makes it the first digital currency without the need for a trusted authority such as a bank or a central server. Bitcoin relies on the blockchain as a security ledger. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be changed retrospectively without changing all subsequent blocks, which requires the consistent consent of most members of the network. In conjunction with intelligent contracts, such blockchains can be thought of as a decentralized notarization service that allows transparency so that anyone with preset rights can see the content within the data element record that was constructed and time stamped using cryptographic hashes.

Smart contracts are dynamic, live contracts that cannot change once created, but can perform certain actions when certain conditions are met, such as automatically sharing records with pre-approved parties using digital signatures. Each chunk in the software contains a cryptographic hash, a timestamp, and transaction data of a previous chunk. By design, the blockchain may resist modification of the data. To serve as a distributed ledger (hedger), blockchains are typically managed by peer-to-peer networks, collectively adhering to protocols for inter-node communication and authentication of new blocks. Blockchains are currently expanding beyond cryptocurrency and are found in many shipping industries. In fact, IBM has recently worked with the denmark logistics huge headquarters Maersk to update its logistics network with block-chain software.

In the shipment tracking embodiment of the present invention, the status of all products (or bulk products) is continuously monitored by IoT sensors. These sensors wirelessly transmit information to a blockchain on the cloud network. Metadata such as time, date, GPS coordinates and asset status (temperature of refrigerated items, etc.), who may have contacted or moved the product, may be immediately added and recorded to a permanent, encrypted record on the block on the chain. If any pre-programmed parameters are violated, all parties on the blockchain are automatically notified via the scatter ledger. For example, at an inspection point in a channel in the indian ocean, the RFID sensor detects that the crew is not maintaining a cooler temperature onboard, resulting in 10 tons of fruit damage that will arrive at the port in the following week. The software records these conditions on the blockchain and immediately notifies the financial trader of the problem and its responsible person.

It is another object of the present invention to enhance software compatibility on a business network. The shipment tracking software resides on a platform agnostic, network-based cloud network. Further, the software includes a version of a mobile device interacting with the cloud network.

It is another object of the present invention to allow financial traders to be more competitive in the trading finance industry. Because these financiers may provide lower financial costs based on actual, real-world conditions rather than abstract forecasts, they may provide their services at lower costs than competitors that rely on forecasts.

In this brief description, upon reading this disclosure, those skilled in the art will recognize various means for implementing the desired features of the invention. It is therefore to be understood that other methods, applications, and systems suitable for the task can also be configured to achieve these features and are therefore considered to be within the scope and intent of the present invention and are contemplated. With respect to the above description, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the invention disclosed herein in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention described herein is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways that will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the apparatus of the present disclosure. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions and methods insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention. As used in the claims to describe various inventive aspects and embodiments, "comprising" means including but not limited to anything following the word "comprising". Thus, use of the term "comprising" indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present. "consisting of …" means anything including and limited to the word "consisting of …". Thus, the word "consisting of …" means that the listed elements are required or mandatory, and that no other elements may be present. "consisting essentially of …" is meant to include any element listed in that word and is not limited to other elements that do not interfere with or contribute to the activity or effect specified in the disclosure for the listed element. Thus, the word "consisting essentially of …" means that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present, depending on whether they affect the activity or function of the listed elements. The object features and advantages of the invention, as well as its advantages over the prior art, will become apparent from the description which follows, and are accomplished by the improvements described in this specification and described in the following detailed description which fully discloses the invention, but is not to be considered as limiting thereof.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate some embodiments and/or features, but are not a sole or exclusive example.

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of the invention in use.

Figure 2 shows a representative view of the process of the invention.

Fig. 3 shows a blockchain embodiment of the present invention.

Other aspects of the invention will be more readily understood when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description, neither of which should be considered limiting.

Detailed description of the drawings

In this specification, the directional prepositions "upward," "downward," "front," "back," "top," "above," "bottom," "below," "left," "right," and other such terms refer to the device as it is oriented and appears in the drawing figures, and are used for convenience only; they are not intended to be limiting and do not mean that the device must be used or positioned in any particular orientation. Conventional components of the present invention are well known elements in the art and will not be discussed in detail for the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention with an onboard sensor 2 on a vehicle 8 in transit. The sensors 2 comprise devices such as, but not limited to, wireless active radio frequency identification tags that send wireless signals to stakeholders (including, but not limited to, customers 7, finance companies 6 and carriers 3) via interaction with software applications 4 resident on the mobile device 5 and desktop computer 1, notifying them of the shipment. The signal utilization and Wif, not limited to, an iFI, GSM cellular signals, GPS signals, etc. Applications of the above inventive software may be written in a variety of codes, which may include, but are not limited to: java (Java)^TM、C++^TM、Visual Basic^TM、Fortran^TMAnd Basic^TMAnd the like. Fig. 2 shows a representative view of the system. The software is compatible with a plurality of operating systems, such as but not limited to: windows (R) Windows^TM、Apple^TMAnd Andriod^TMAnd is compatible with a variety of hardware platforms such as, but not limited to: personal desktop computer 11, laptop computer, tablet computer 13, smart phone 14, and the like. The figure shows the vehicle 8 sending a signal associated with the cargo by text message SMS, email, etc., including but not limited to the real-time asset location 21 (by means of GPS, etc.); asset condition 22 (weight, temperature, etc.); and notifications 23 (emergency alerts, dynamic transport alerts, etc.). The stakeholders and asset goods sensors are connected through a cloud network server 15. The cloud network server has algorithms and operations including, but not limited to: device registration (user service subscription; subscription payment, etc.); a data collection platform 18 (sensor data archive); monitoring and communication 19 (sensor status, calibration and maintenance routines, etc.); and a dynamic financial algorithm 20 (automatically adjusting actual transportation costs based on real-time sensor data, etc.). The dynamic financial algorithm described above is a draw (draw down) routine that is customized and preprogrammed by the finance business user and based on a mutual contract with the shipper. For example, the financier agrees to provide the buyer with 10% of the credit whenever a ship carrying the buyer's asset arrives at the checkpoint port along the way in a satisfactory state. The software calculates such dynamic draws in real time and relays them to stakeholders (including buyers of course).

Fig. 3 illustrates another embodiment of the present invention incorporating blockchain software. The blockchain software component has functions such as, but not limited to: an initial transaction 24 (such as an inventory of assets registered to an ocean vessel) is identified as a block of origin 25 after approval by a network node consisting of, but not limited to: managers (software managers), shippers, finance owners, buyers, etc. As the asset is en route within the supply chain, each transaction in progress (asset status, location, etc.) is encrypted and added to the previous tile 26, forming a hash tile chain 27, with each transaction having a timestamp and metadata that is broadcast 28 to the aforementioned authorized stakeholders (etc.) as a recorded transaction on a ledger 29 and is only available on the cloud network 15. By design, blockchains may resist modification of data. To serve as a ledger, the blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network, collectively adhering to protocols for inter-node communication and authentication of new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be changed retrospectively without changing all subsequent blocks, which would require the consistent consent of most members of the network. In conjunction with intelligent contracts, such blockchains can be thought of as a decentralized notarization service that allows transparency so that anyone with preset rights can see the content within the data element record that was constructed using cryptographic hashes and time stamped. Smart contracts are dynamic, real-time contracts that cannot be changed once created, but can perform certain actions when certain conditions are met, such as using digital signatures to automatically share records with pre-approved parties

It is also to be noted and contemplated that while the device is shown in its simplest form, various components and aspects of the device may be shaped differently or modified slightly when forming the present invention. As such, those skilled in the art will recognize that the descriptions and descriptions set forth in this disclosure, or simply, are meant as examples of preferred modes of operation within the general scope and intent of the invention, and should not be taken as limiting in any way. While all of the fundamental features and characteristics of the present invention have been shown and described herein with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosures, and it will be apparent that in some instances some features of the invention will be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth. It should also be appreciated that various substitutions, modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A system for providing dynamic pricing for trading finances, comprising the following components:

a) a software application;

b) a cloud network; and

c) a sensor.

2. The system for providing dynamic pricing for trade finances of claim 1, wherein the software application resides on the cloud network.

3. The system for providing dynamic pricing for trade finance of claim 1, wherein the cloud network has algorithms that perform the following operations: managing reservations, communicating in real time with sensors and stakeholders, performing dynamic draw on transportation costs based on sensor data, and automatically notifying users.

4. The system for providing dynamic pricing for trade finance of claim 1, wherein sensors are active and send asset data to the cloud network.

5. A method for providing dynamic pricing for trading financials, comprising the steps of:

a) installing a sensor in an asset cargo conveyance;

b) sending asset status and location signals to a cloud network in real time:

c) calculating a dynamic draw based on the asset state and location; and

d) automatically notifying stakeholders of the dynamic draw.

6. The method of providing dynamic pricing for trading finance of claim 5, wherein sending asset status and location signals to a cloud network comprises: an additional step of transmitting the signal over the wireless network.

7. The method of providing dynamic pricing for trade finance according to claim 5, wherein the dynamic draw notification automatically sent to stakeholders is in the form of a text message, SMS, and email.