Built on an open standard. Not locked to DocuShield.
TradeTrust is an open framework developed by Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). DocuShield is built on top of it, which means your documents work everywhere, not just here.
Only around 11% of Bills of Lading are electronic today, up from about 1% in 2021. TradeTrust exists to accelerate that by creating a single, interoperable standard that any company, bank, or government can implement. DocuShield is one implementation built on it. There are others. And they all work together.
What TradeTrust is
An open standard for digital trade documents. Not owned by any single company.
TradeTrust is a framework that defines how digital trade documents should be issued, verified, and transferred. It combines two things: a cryptographic standard that ensures documents cannot be tampered with, and a legal recognition layer aligned with MLETR (the UNCITRAL model law for electronic transferable records). Together, they make a digital document legally equivalent to a paper original.
Open source, publicly available
The TradeTrust specification and reference implementations are published openly. Any company or government can read, use, and build on them. The code is on GitHub. There is no licensing fee.
Backed by Singapore's IMDA
The framework is maintained by the Infocomm Media Development Authority, a Singapore Government statutory board. It is used by governments, ports, and banks across Singapore, the UK, and beyond.
No proprietary lock-in
A document issued on any TradeTrust-compatible platform, including DocuShield, can be verified on any other TradeTrust-compatible verifier. The network is open. No single vendor controls access to it.
What this means for you
Three things you can count on, regardless of what happens to DocuShield.
These are the questions every procurement team, legal department, and operations director should ask before committing to any digital document platform. Here are the honest answers.
Your documents don't expire if DocuShield changes.
The document record lives on the XDC blockchain. Anyone holding the .tt file can verify it independently, forever, using any TradeTrust-compliant tool. The record is permanent. It belongs to you, not to us.
Your counterparty doesn't need a DocuShield account.
Banks, port authorities, and customs offices can verify any DocuShield document on verify.tradetrust.io, completely free. No account, no software, no integration required. They drag in the file and see the result in seconds.
You are not locked in.
If you move to another TradeTrust-compatible platform, your document history travels with you. TradeTrust is a public open standard, not a proprietary format. Your documents work across the open TradeTrust network.
The verification network
Where a DocuShield document verifies.
Any platform that implements the TradeTrust standard can verify a DocuShield document. The official public verifier is verify.tradetrust.io, free and with no login. As more platforms and customs systems adopt the TradeTrust standard, the set of places your documents can be verified grows.
How a DocuShield document gets verified
Three seconds. No account. No software.
The person verifying the document does not need to know anything about blockchain or digital identity. The platform handles all of that automatically.
The verifier opens the document.
They receive a .tt document file or a shareable link from DocuShield. They drag it into verify.tradetrust.io or any compatible platform. No account is needed. No software to download. The whole process starts in seconds.
Three checks happen automatically.
The system checks three things independently: whether the document has been changed since it was issued, whether it was genuinely issued by the company it claims (by checking a verified record on that company's public domain), and whether the document is still active or has been surrendered or revoked.
Green means valid. Red means something is wrong.
Each check returns a clear pass or fail. If anything has been altered, or if the document has been revoked or surrendered, the verifier sees exactly which check failed and why. No ambiguity.
All checks passed
Document is valid and unmodified
Issuer identity failed
Domain record does not match the claimed issuer
Legal recognition
MLETR adoption by country.
The Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) is the UNCITRAL framework that gives legal force to electronic trade documents including electronic Bills of Lading. Countries that have adopted MLETR allow DocuShield eBLs to carry the same legal weight as paper originals on those trade lanes.
Source: UNCITRAL MLETR status tracker, the authoritative list. Status as of mid-2026. The US uses UCC Article 7 plus E-SIGN and UETA rather than MLETR.
Proprietary eDOC platforms
TradeTrust open standard (DocuShield)
About IMDA and the TradeTrust initiative
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is a Singapore Government statutory board responsible for the development of the infocomm and media sectors. The TradeTrust initiative was launched to create a trusted, interoperable global framework for digital trade documents. McKinsey estimated in 2022 that electronic bills of lading could save $6.5 billion in direct costs and enable $30 to 40 billion in global trade (McKinsey, 2022).
TradeTrust is used by governments including Singapore and the United Kingdom, with participation from banks, port authorities, and logistics operators worldwide. It is developed as an open standard in collaboration with industry bodies across shipping, trade finance, and logistics.
Learn more at tradetrust.ioQuestions about compatibility with your systems?
We will walk you through which platforms your counterparties already use, which trade lanes are covered, and exactly how verification works end to end.
Talk to usReady 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