THE SOVEREIGN BRIDGE FOR MARITIME TRADE
Global standards meet sovereign law.
We make maritime and trade documents legally valid in digital form — built by people who signed, carried and inspected them at sea for 20 years. Today: qualified-signature document workflows and digital evidence. Next: an electronic bill of lading recognised as a document of title under Turkish law.
Paper still wins at the border.
A document is only as good as the jurisdiction that recognises it. When a digital trade document crosses into a strict national jurisdiction that hasn’t adopted MLETR, it loses local legal weight — and gets reprinted. The global trade-finance gap sits near $2.5 trillion, hitting hardest exactly where the global platforms can’t reach. That gap isn’t a software bug. It’s a sovereignty bug. It’s the one we exist to close.
≈ 11%
of container bills of lading are electronic (DCSA, 2025)
≈ $2.5T
global trade-finance gap ADB, 2025 Survey
Bridging Global Standards with Local Legal Recognition
Exclusive Control (MLETR Art. 11 / UK ETDA 2023 s.3)
Our target design enforces exclusive control and singularity of the electronic record at the registry layer — the reliability standard P&I clubs, banks and courts test against. In R&D (TRL 3); not yet in live use.
Sovereign Compliance (MLETR Arts. 10–12)
We design DCSA-standard eBL data payloads to fit national law. Until Türkiye enacts MLETR-aligned legislation, recognition can only be contractual, through a rulebook the parties sign; the design is intended to serve as a reference implementation once reform lands.
Qualified Signatures (QES, Law No. 5070, Art. 5)
We bring qualified electronic signatures — legally equivalent to a wet-ink signature under Law No. 5070, Art. 5(1) — and remote identity verification into maritime workflows, on the infrastructure of a BTK-authorised qualified trust service provider. We map each document to the right signature level and legal basis.
AVAILABLE NOW
Digital Seaworthiness — what you can use today.
What existing law (Law No. 5070, HMK Art. 205/2) already allows today: sign survey reports, certificates, crew and operational documents with qualified electronic signatures that carry the legal effect of a wet-ink signature; verify the signer’s identity remotely; prove a document’s integrity to a Port State Control officer, an insurer or a casualty investigator in seconds. We determine which signature level and legal basis each document needs, and build the workflow around the way the fleet actually works. Not just a document — evidence.
Technology partner: ArkSigner, a BTK-authorised qualified trust service provider. Infrastructure and product details: /arksigner
IN BUILD
The sovereign eBL — what we’re building.
An electronic bill of lading that holds its legal weight where global platforms lose theirs. Exclusive control and singularity — one valid title at a time, enforced cryptographically. A closed-loop rulebook every party signs on entry. A switch-to-paper “burn” so a digital twin and a paper original can never exist at once. Designed to meet the IG P&I “deemed approved” criteria under the singularity standard of the UK ETDA 2023 — and to become the reference build for MLETR reform in the jurisdictions that adopt it.
Who we serve.
Shipowners & managers
Pain — high OPEX, detention risk, paper-heavy clearance.
Value — qualified-signature sign-off under Law No. 5070; operational speed; verifiable “digital seaworthiness.”
Superyacht operators & charter brokers
Pain — cross-jurisdiction signing chaos — owner in Monaco, vessel in Cayman, signatory in Türkiye.
Value — real-time qualified signing, with a clear map of which signature level each document needs (choice-of-law questions alongside your counsel).
Port agents, authorities & customs
Pain — slow clearance, documents and certificates whose authenticity cannot be checked.
Value — instant verification; accelerated single-window.
Banks & trade financiers
Pain — the $2.5T trade-finance gap; manual document checks.
Value (target) — today: verifiable qualified signatures on finance and insurance documents. Tomorrow, once the law reforms: an eBL that works as a document of title.
The trust architecture.
Technical firepower
PKI of a BTK-authorised qualified trust service provider (technology partner: ArkSigner): qualified e-signatures, e-seals, PAdES LTV archival timestamps. Conforms to ETSI CAdES / XAdES / PAdES.
Legal anchors
Designed against IMO FAL.5/Circ.39 & Circ.46 (electronic certificates), the UK ETDA 2023 reliable-system test and MLETR Arts. 10–12.
Domain expertise
20 years of seafaring, flag-state survey, and superyacht management, translated into a frictionless, mariner-built workflow.
We know what each maritime document has to prove — and we build its digital version to prove it.
FOUNDER
Built by someone who’s stood the watch.
Maresign was founded by a Master Mariner — 20 years at sea, a flag-state surveyor, and a general manager in superyacht management and flag registration. Maresign exists because the people building digital trade infrastructure rarely stood a watch, and the people who stood the watch rarely build software. We do both. That’s why our tools fit the way the fleet actually works — and why our legal architecture answers to the realities of a casualty investigation, a Port State Control inspection, and a strict national customs desk, not just a slide deck.
Because a port wouldn’t accept it. Because the bank wanted wet ink. Because the jurisdiction didn’t recognise it. That’s the gap we close.
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