Built on the UN standard.
DocuShield documents are not just digital copies. They are built on MLETR, the UNCITRAL Model Law that, as of 2026, has been adopted in 13 jurisdictions, including Singapore, the UK (through the Electronic Trade Documents Act), France, Bahrain, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Belize, Timor-Leste, and the Abu Dhabi Global Market. The current list is maintained by UNCITRAL. In the US, electronic bills of lading are recognised under UCC Article 7 with E-SIGN and UETA.
For legal and procurement review
The three questions
every legal team asks.
Plain answers, with the sources to back them. If your legal team needs source documents or a compliance briefing call, we can provide both.
Is this legally binding?
MLETR, UNCITRALYes, in every jurisdiction that recognises electronic transferable records. Internationally, the legal foundation is MLETR (the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records), published by UNCITRAL, the United Nations trade law body. As of 2026, MLETR-based or MLETR-influenced legislation has been adopted in 13 jurisdictions, including Singapore, the UK (through the Electronic Trade Documents Act), France, Bahrain, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Belize, Timor-Leste, and the Abu Dhabi Global Market, where electronic Bills of Lading that satisfy the requirements are recognised as documents of title with the same standing as paper originals. In the United States, electronic bills of lading are recognised under UCC Article 7 (documents of title), which treats control of an electronic record as the equivalent of possession, supported by the federal E-SIGN Act and UETA. US recognition does not depend on MLETR adoption. DocuShield's eBL is designed around the core MLETR requirements: exclusive control by one party at a time, a reliable means of transfer, and tamper-evident integrity.
What happens if DocuShield shuts down?
TradeTrust Open StandardYour documents remain valid and verifiable permanently, because they are not stored on DocuShield's servers. They are issued on the TradeTrust open standard, which is an open-source framework maintained independently of any single company, supported by the Singapore Government. The document records live on the XDC blockchain, which is a public, decentralised network. Any TradeTrust-compatible verifier, including a bank, port, or customs authority running their own system, can independently verify a DocuShield-issued document with no dependency on DocuShield being online.
Can our bank accept this?
eUCP v2.0, ICCYes, provided the Letter of Credit is issued subject to eUCP v2.0 (the electronic supplement to UCP 600, published by the International Chamber of Commerce). eUCP v2.0 gives banks a formal framework for accepting electronic documents in LC presentations, including electronic Bills of Lading, and specifying the format, presentation method, and verification requirements. For banks that are not yet familiar with eBLs, DocuShield provides compliance briefing documentation and is available to speak directly with your legal and operations teams. Across the industry, a growing number of LC-issuing banks, particularly in Singapore, the UK, and the UAE, now accept electronic bill of lading presentations under eUCP. DocuShield documents are built to present under the same framework.
Legal foundations
The standards DocuShield
is built on.
Each framework below is a real, independently governed international standard, not a proprietary certification we created ourselves.
Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records
UNCITRAL, United Nations
What it is
An international model law that enables electronic records to function as legal equivalents of paper transferable documents, including Bills of Lading, promissory notes, and warehouse receipts.
What it covers
Defines the requirements for an electronic transferable record to be legally valid: it must be subject to reliable control by a single party at any time, it must be transferable, and its integrity must be verifiable.
Why it matters for DocuShield
DocuShield's eBL architecture is designed to meet the core MLETR requirements. In jurisdictions that have enacted MLETR, electronic transferable records that satisfy those requirements are recognised as documents of title with the same standing as paper. Whether a given document qualifies depends on the transaction and the applicable law.
Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, Electronic Supplement
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
What it is
The official supplement to UCP 600 that governs how electronic documents are used in Letter of Credit transactions. Version 2.0, effective 2019, was updated specifically to accommodate eBLs and other electronic trade documents.
What it covers
Format of electronic records, presentation procedures, obligations of banks when examining digital documents, and what constitutes a valid electronic presentation under an LC.
Why it matters for DocuShield
Any LC that includes the phrase 'subject to eUCP v2.0' can legally incorporate electronic Bills of Lading issued through DocuShield. This is the critical clause your bank needs to see in the LC wording.
Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
What it is
The foundational global rulebook for Letters of Credit, in use by virtually every bank that issues or processes LCs worldwide. UCP 600 governs how banks examine documents, what counts as a discrepancy, and what the banks' obligations are to all parties.
What it covers
Definitions of all LC parties, document examination standards, timing requirements, discrepancy rules, transferable LCs, and standby LCs.
Why it matters for DocuShield
DocuShield-issued documents are designed to meet the document standards required under UCP 600, correct party names, compliant descriptions, and verifiable issue dates, reducing the risk of discrepancies on presentation.
TradeTrust Framework
Singapore IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority)
What it is
An open-source technology and governance framework that defines how digital trade documents are issued, verified, and transferred across different platforms and systems. It ensures interoperability, documents issued by one platform can be verified by any other TradeTrust-compatible system.
What it covers
Document issuance standards, verification protocols, title transfer mechanisms, DNS-based issuer identity, and legal alignment with MLETR.
Why it matters for DocuShield
DocuShield is built entirely on TradeTrust. This means every DocuShield document can be independently verified at verify.tradetrust.io and by any bank, port, or customs authority running TradeTrust-compatible software, without DocuShield acting as intermediary.
Issuer identity
How does anyone know
a document is really from you?
This is the first question a bank or port asks about any digital document: could someone have faked it? The answer lies in a verification method that is open, independent, and requires no trust in DocuShield.
When your organisation joins DocuShield, we publish a verified digital signature on your official company domain, the same web address your clients and partners already know belongs to you. This is a public record that anyone can check, independently, without asking DocuShield for anything.
When a bank receives your eBL and clicks verify, the system checks your company domain in real time. If the signature matches, the document is confirmed as genuinely issued by your organisation. If it does not, the document fails, even if everything else looks correct. This means a forged document cannot pass issuer verification unless the forger controls your company's own domain.
Your company domain is the proof
DocuShield publishes your verified issuer signature at your own web domain, e.g. acmeshipping.com. This is a public record that belongs to you, not to us.
Any bank can check it independently
Verification queries your domain directly, no DocuShield account needed, no API key, no login. A bank in Singapore, a port in Rotterdam, a customs authority in Dubai can all check the same public record.
Impersonation requires control of your domain
The signature can only be published on a domain by its owner. No one can create a document that passes identity verification unless they control your web domain, which is your company's domain registrar account.
Document fingerprint, example
Document fingerprint does not match.
One or more fields have been altered. This document cannot be accepted.
Document tamper-proofing
Change one character.
The document fails.
When a document is issued through DocuShield, we generate a unique fingerprint of every field, every name, every number, every date, every character, and store that fingerprint permanently on the blockchain.
If anyone subsequently opens the document file and changes even a single character, altering a weight from 24,500 kg to 24,600 kg, changing the consignee name, adjusting a date, the fingerprint no longer matches when verified. The document fails immediately, with no ambiguity.
This is automatic and instantaneous. The bank does not need to compare documents manually or call to verify. The mathematics either pass or they do not.
Tamper detection is built into the open TradeTrust standard, independently auditable by any technical reviewer. It does not rely on trusting DocuShield.
Security posture
Security and infrastructure.
DocuShield is built for organisations where a data breach or document fraud incident would have serious commercial and regulatory consequences. Here is what is live today, and what is on the roadmap.
Live today
- On-chain immutable record of every issuance and transfer
- Independent verification with no DocuShield account required
- Non-custodial wallets: private keys are split using threshold cryptography, so no single party, including DocuShield, ever holds the complete key
- TLS encryption in transit
- Document lifecycle events recorded
On the roadmap
- Encryption at rest (AES-256) on managed Postgres
- Role-based access control (RBAC), MFA, and SSO
- ISO 27001 alignment
- API key hashing
Need legal review support?
Talk to us.
We work with legal teams, procurement committees, and bank compliance departments through the approval process. We can provide framework documentation, answer specific questions, and speak directly with your reviewers.
We provide a Data Processing Agreement, security questionnaire responses, and framework source documentation on request.
Ready to move trade forward?
See DocuShield issue an eBL end to end in seconds. We'll walk through your specific document types and integration needs.
Pilot program for freight forwarders · Running on a public test network, mainnet deployment in progress