It would seem to me that although they are partnering with Stellar in support of an international payments platform. That might be their good will project in terms of helping to bring banking to the 3rd world.
Their own project seems to leverage advantages of block chain, such as ledgers and ways of setting up trustless contracts for use in massively overhauling global supply chains, specifically shipping it would seem. Well, for now that seems to be their user case study.
https://www.maersk.com/press/press-release-archive/maersk-and-ibm-to-form-joint-venture
https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/hyperledger.html
There is no cryptocurrency involved, and it would seem that this would very much be a private blockchain application, mainly to bring stability I would imagine. A software application of blockchain technology, so more of a hybrid, than a true rendering of what Bitcoin was created for.
Still it represents evolution of the idea, and in all cases there will be a need for both truly decentralised applications, and those that can ultimately be controlled to a certain degree, whilst allowing its users anonymity within the sandbox its owner has created.
I think there will be big business in both.
blockchain seems like it would be awesome for managing logistics and inventory and massive global shipping problems, maybe even dealing with things like customs more efficiently.
Yeah the integration network between each entity in the supply chain at the moment is complex and highly susceptible to malware attacks. With logistics being such a fluid entity its also hard to build automated systems that can adapt.
In controlled warehouses like Amazon it works like a dream.
Bridging between each company's preferred software application is doable, and it all talks to each other, but yeah I think industry can learn alot from current blockchain applications. ARK for one, and bridging. Getting code to talk to one another is one of the major hurdles right now.
Though I do think block chain and some form of adaptive learning machine intelligence will eventually supersede the systems we have in place right now. I don't think it will be decentralised tech, that is as per IBM no crypto currency tokens governing the staking process and securing the network. But its interesting to watch.