The first known freight deals to use Bitcoin represent baby steps toward a future in which the popular cryptocurrency may not be the only one to have a role.

The early transactions were a test, to explore how other blockchain-based online payment systems could play in a shipping industry taking tenuous steps toward digitalisation.

Proponents of the trend exploring ways to use non-Bitcoin digital currencies — either through alternative cryptocurrencies known as Altcoins or through sales of tokens that more closely resemble securities like shares than actual currencies — all in an effort to grease the wheels of transactions including freight and ship finance transactions.