Maritime Passport – Giving seafarers back their lives, digitally

Why Maritime Passport is pushing new boundaries

The maritime sector has long grappled with a structural imbalance: a seagoing workforce that is globally distributed, operationally critical, and yet often disconnected from the systems that govern compliance, employment and oversight. For years, the ambition has been to bring the digital ecosystem closer to the seafarer, while giving employers greater visibility and regulators stronger assurance of compliance.

That ambition is now beginning to take shape.

At the centre of this shift is Maritime Passport, a platform that reflects a more advanced phase of maritime digitalisation: less about incremental improvement and more about rethinking how identity, data and compliance are managed. Built on globally recognised security and identity standards, it places interoperability and security at its core, addressing two of the industry’s most persistent challenges.

A key feature is the shift in data ownership. Personal information sits with the seafarer, accessible through a secure, mobile interface. Biometric authentication underpins a high-assurance digital identity, allowing remote onboarding and credential verification without weakening trust or control.

The platform also introduces a digital seafarer record book. Sea-time records are secured using cryptographic signatures, making them verifiable and resistant to tampering. The result is a single, reliable record of employment history, available in real time to employers, flag administrations and port authorities.

Certification management is handled in the same way. Seafarers can upload and maintain STCW and other IMO-required documentation directly within the system, allowing continuous validation and reducing administrative burden. Integration with ship registries adds a further layer, providing real-time visibility of vessel status, certification and compliance.

In practical terms, this goes beyond digitising existing processes. It establishes a portable identity layer for maritime labour—one that improves efficiency, supports compliance and gives seafarers direct control over their own data.

The question of control sits at the heart of the wider digitalisation debate. For Maritime Passport, the position is clear: the seafarer owns the data.

As Marcel Wendt, Chief Technical Officer of Maritime Passport and founder of Digidentity, puts it, the platform is not designed to act as a centralised gatekeeper. Instead, it allows individuals to manage and share their professional credentials and certifications directly. The inclusion of the seafarer discharge book in mDoc format reinforces this approach, removing the risk of tampering with one of the industry’s most important documents.

The technology behind the platform is already well established. mDOC standards are widely used in government-issued digital identity systems, including mobile driving licences, and are embedded in everyday tools such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Applying the same standards to maritime brings a level of familiarity and trust that has often been missing from industry-specific solutions.

Mr Wendt notes that the technology has been years in the making. After nearly two decades working with legacy systems, his focus shifted towards emerging digital identity frameworks at a point when the standards were still evolving. Those foundations are now in place, with maritime among the first sectors to adopt them at scale.

“This tried and tested technology is already the gold standard for global security and identification, making it the safest way to share personal identity information. This technology is adopted internationally by almost every government for the new mobile driving licence on the phone, for instance. You see it in Apple and Google Pay, you see it in your wallet in your bank card,” he said.

“At Maritime Passport, we can issue the seafarer identity because the system is responsible for undertaking the identity verification process and generating the mDoc. This is important for companies like Stream Marine run by Maritime Passport CEO Martin White, who can update and view the STCW certificates, for example,” he said.

As Mr Wendt added, the seafarer’s identity and personal documents really belong to the seafarer. Seafarers can never now be held hostage by the crewing agency because they may hold the seafarer’s certificate of competence. Personal data must never be immorally monetised, he underlined.

As the system is an app on a hand-held device, it is always encrypted and backed up on the Maritime Passport platform.

For operators such as Stream Marine, and Maritime Passport CEO Martin White, the benefits are immediate. Certification data, including STCW records, can be viewed and updated in real time, reducing administrative overhead while strengthening compliance. 

“The increase in efficiencies and the move away from paper-based training certification is a massive economic benefit to me,” he said. It is also bringing the seafarer closer to the office, making our crew feel more valued. 

The broader implications are significant. By keeping identity and certification data with the seafarer, long-standing frictions within crewing and employment practices are reduced. The risk of individuals losing access to critical documentation, whether through inefficiency or commercial pressure, is effectively removed. Personal data remains under the control of the individual, rather than being held or leveraged by third parties.

Regulation is also playing a role in accelerating change. Organisations such as the International Maritime Organization and national flag states are increasingly signalling the need for digital solutions. Paper-based accreditation systems are becoming less compatible with modern shipping, and the direction of travel is clearly towards fully digital frameworks.

For Peter Phillips, Chief Commercial Officer and co-founder of Maritime Passport, the transition is as much about mindset as technology. Moving to digital identity requires engagement across the industry, from seafarers and operators to regulators and service providers, and a shared understanding of how these systems will be used in practice.

Interoperability is central to that process. The platform has been designed to integrate with existing systems, allowing data to move securely and efficiently across the maritime ecosystem. This is particularly evident in onboarding.

Once a seafarer accepts an assignment, pre-boarding documentation can be shared directly through the platform, limited to what the individual has agreed to provide. This creates a controlled and transparent flow of information, reducing duplication and simplifying compliance.

The impact is most visible at embarkation. A QR code generated onboard allows the seafarer to verify their identity instantly via the app. Within seconds, confirmation is provided that credentials are valid and identity has been securely verified, removing the need for manual checks of paper records.

The scope extends further. The same framework can support the issuance of verifiable medical certificates and other credentials requiring trusted identity verification. In that sense, Maritime Passport is not a single-purpose tool, but a broader infrastructure layer for managing maritime workforce data.

“This comes back to the interoperability piece,” says Peter Phillips, “as the platform can talk and link into other existing platforms seamlessly. When the seafarer is invited to join the ship, and once he or she accepts it, by using Maritime Passport they can provide all of the pre-boarding data that’s required, and what he/she has agreed to share. 

“As soon as the seafarer board the ship, the Master produces a QR code, which the seafarer scans, and then receives a green tick, saying that the seafarer is the person who they say they are and has accepted the trip, and that his/her identity has been digitally verified and secured. This means that the crew manager or the Master doesn’t have to go through all the paper record books.”

As Martin White added, the breadth of what can be done by Maritime Passport is endless, whether it is issuing verifiable medical certificates or anything where digital identity verification is needed.

Industry response has been encouraging. The platform was presented at the FAL 50 meeting of the International Maritime Organization at the invitation of the Bahamas Maritime Authority, where it received strong interest from both regulators and industry stakeholders.

Adoption, however, remains mixed. Some in the industry are still uncertain about the practical benefits of digitalisation. Others recognise its potential and are moving quickly  with their own systems. A third group understands the value but is unclear on how to proceed.

Flag states are likely to play a decisive role in bridging that gap. Many crew managers are waiting for clearer direction from administrations before committing to change.

So where is Maritime Passport precisely in its development phase? Well, according to Marcel Wendt, any last minute testing or pre-production can go hand-in-hand with signing important customer contracts. And while Maritime Passport will be ready for use by the time this article is published, new ideas and advantages will continually be added to this important piece of software.

The direction itself is not in doubt. As regulatory pressure increases and practical use cases continue to demonstrate value, platforms such as Maritime Passport are positioning themselves as part of the industry’s future operating model, supporting a more connected, efficient and compliant maritime sector.