THE NETWORK TRACKING THE SHIPS THE WORLD CAN'T SEE
AIS spoofing is up 2,400% since 2023. Shadow fleet vessels are evading billion-dollar naval blockades. The infrastructure the world uses to track ships at sea has never been more fragile — or more consolidated. MastChain is building the alternative.
HEADLINE FIGURES
35 million data points collected daily
450,000 km² of coastline coverage
60+ countries in the network
2,400% rise in AIS spoofing since 2023
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Every day, roughly 90,000 ships move the goods the world runs on. They carry oil, grain, electronics, medicine. Each one is supposed to broadcast its location every few seconds. Increasingly, they don't — or they lie about it.
In 2026, maritime tracking is in crisis. AIS spoofing incidents have risen 2,400% since 2023. Shadow fleet tankers are slipping through US naval blockades in the Strait of Hormuz. A real collision between a dark-running vessel and a legitimate VLCC demonstrated in the starkest terms what happens when ships navigate in a digital fog. And the infrastructure underpinning the entire global vessel tracking system — the data that insurers, governments, compliance teams, and commodity traders all rely on — has quietly consolidated into the hands of just two conglomerates following three major acquisitions between 2023 and 2025.
Into this landscape, two founders from Copenhagen have built something the industry didn't know it needed: a decentralised, cryptographically verified, community-run maritime tracking network. MastChain is not a dashboard. It is not a data broker. It is infrastructure — and it is live.
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THE PROBLEM: A SYSTEM BUILT FOR AN HONEST WORLD
AIS — the Automatic Identification System — was designed decades ago to prevent collisions at sea. Ships broadcast their position, speed, heading, and identity on a shared radio channel. Other vessels and coastal stations receive those broadcasts and build a real-time picture of traffic. Simple, elegant, and effective — provided everyone transmits honestly.
The system has no verification layer. A vessel can broadcast any coordinates, any name, any flag it chooses. Enforcement agencies, port authorities, and insurance underwriters receive the data and, historically, took it at face value. In a world where AIS manipulation was rare and technically demanding, that was fine. In 2026, it is not fine.
WHAT AIS SPOOFING LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE
Going dark: A vessel simply turns off its AIS transponder. It disappears from tracking systems entirely. Common during ship-to-ship oil transfers designed to obscure sanctioned cargo, and increasingly used in conflict zones like the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz.
Position spoofing: A vessel transmits fabricated coordinates while its real location remains hidden. At least 14 US-sanctioned tankers used spoofed AIS data in 2025 to falsely show port calls at Khor al Zubair, Iraq — with nearly half of all AIS-generated voyages to that port in the period found to be simulated.
Identity cloning: A vessel transmits the MMSI number and identity of a different — sometimes scrapped — ship. These "zombie vessels" are an increasingly common tool for sanctions evasion across Iranian and Russian oil networks.
Flag falsification: Vessels transmit false flag states, including registries from landlocked nations. Sixteen ships were identified in 2026 operating under fake flags including Botswana and San Marino.
The consequences are not abstract. When AIS goes dark, ships navigating busy waterways lose situational awareness of vessels around them. Collision risk rises sharply. When a dark fleet tanker collided with a legitimate VLCC near the Strait of Hormuz, investigators found the vessel had appeared in tracking data as being onshore in Iran two days prior — a GPS interference artifact nobody had caught. Bridge crews are being asked to navigate in a "digital fog, where position data can be corrupted, nearby ships may be invisible by design."
"The industry that tracks ships now has fewer independent data sources. MastChain was built for this moment: a network where every data point carries cryptographic proof of where, when, and by whom it was collected."
— MastChain Company Overview
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THE SOLUTION: DECENTRALISED BY DESIGN
MastChain is a DePIN — a Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Network. The concept, which has produced significant results in wireless connectivity (Helium), mapping (Hivemapper), and vehicle data (DIMO), applies a simple principle: instead of one company running all the hardware, independent contributors operate nodes and share in the value the network generates.
For maritime data, this means a global network of independent AIS receivers — operated by individuals, businesses, and maritime enthusiasts — capturing live vessel signals from their locations and feeding verified data into a shared pipeline. Each receiver is a node. Each node has a unique cryptographic identity registered on the blockchain. Every signal it captures is timestamped, geotagged, and cryptographically signed before it enters the dataset.
The result is an unbroken chain of custody — from the moment a signal is captured at a physical receiver on a coastline somewhere, to the moment a customer receives it in a data feed. The data cannot be retroactively altered without breaking the cryptographic chain. Buyers do not have to trust MastChain. They can verify the provenance of every data point themselves.
HOW IT WORKS
Step 1 — Deploy an AIS Receiver
Contributors set up a ground-based AIS receiver — either a DIY setup or MastChain's purpose-built MastNode hardware — and connect it to the network. The station begins capturing live vessel signals.
Step 2 — Data Verification
MastChain's patented verification model authenticates each incoming signal in real time, checking geographic plausibility, timing accuracy, and radio signal integrity. Anomalies are flagged before data enters the pipeline.
Step 3 — Earn MAST Tokens
Contributors receive MAST tokens reflecting the quality, reliability, and strategic value of their coverage area. Stations in high-demand shipping corridors earn proportionally more.
The network today spans 200+ active nodes across 20+ countries, capturing more than 7,000 vessels daily and generating 35 million data points across 450,000 square kilometres of coastline. These are not projected figures. The network is live, in beta, and already in negotiations with enterprise data buyers.
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WHY DECENTRALISATION MATTERS HERE
The consolidation problem is structural. Between 2023 and 2025, three major acquisitions collapsed most of the world's independent AIS data infrastructure into two large conglomerates. The industry now has fewer cross-checking data sources at precisely the moment when AIS manipulation has become a daily operational challenge — not an edge case.
A centralised data provider is only as trustworthy as its data collection infrastructure. If the signals coming in are spoofed, the centralised feed passes on spoofed data. There is no independent layer of verification. Buyers receive what the vessels chose to transmit.
MastChain's distributed approach changes the geometry of the problem. When thousands of independent physical receivers observe the same vessel from different angles, a vessel spoofing its position faces a cross-referencing problem: it must fool not one central feed, but every independent node in range simultaneously. Anomalies between what a vessel transmits and what multiple independent stations observe become detectable signals rather than invisible manipulations.
There is also a structural benefit to the buyer market. Commercial AIS data currently commands significant subscription fees from a small number of high-margin brokers. MastChain's model — where data collection costs are distributed across a token-incentivised contributor network — enables competitive pricing for verified, provenance-tracked maritime intelligence at a scale that centralised models cannot match.
THE $2 BILLION MARKET THAT WAS ALREADY THERE
Most DePIN networks build supply and hope demand follows. Maritime AIS data is different. The buyer market — commodity trading desks, marine insurers, sanctions compliance teams, fleet routing optimisers, port authorities — has existed and been paying for AIS data for decades.
Firms like Trafigura and Glencore pay for vessel tracking to front-run cargo flows. Lloyd's underwriters use it to price risk. OFAC compliance teams monitor ship-to-ship transfers. These are not speculative future use cases. They are existing budget line items at institutions that need better, more trustworthy data than the consolidated incumbent market currently provides.
MastChain entered a market it didn't have to create. It is building the infrastructure to serve it differently.
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MASTNODE: FROM NETWORK TO HARDWARE
In June 2026, MastChain ships its first purpose-built hardware: MastNode. The device replaces the DIY receiver setups the early network ran on — SDR dongles, Raspberry Pis, improvised antenna configurations — with a professional-grade, plug-and-play AIS collection station designed specifically for the MastChain network.
The performance difference is significant. In field testing, MastNode stations detected 40–45% more unique vessels than equivalent self-built alternatives. For a network where data quality and coverage density directly determine the value of enterprise contracts, that gap matters considerably.
The partnership with MonsPro — announced in January 2026 — brings professional-grade AIS hardware manufacturing expertise to the project, enabling MastChain to ship devices that meet the signal sensitivity and uptime requirements of commercial maritime data buyers.
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THE MAST TOKEN: INFRASTRUCTURE ECONOMICS
The MAST token is the economic engine of the network. Contributors earn MAST by running verified nodes, with rewards weighted by coverage quality, uptime, and geographic value. The total supply is capped at 500 million tokens, with an emission rate that halves every two years — a structure designed to reward early participants while maintaining long-term sustainability.
Critically, the token model is not purely emissions-driven. As MastChain secures commercial data contracts, revenue from enterprise buyers feeds back into the ecosystem — with a portion used to purchase MAST on the open market, supporting the reward pool without relying solely on new token issuance. This is the structural difference between a subsidy program and an operating business.
TOKEN ALLOCATION
65% — Rewards & Mining
Distributed to node contributors based on verified coverage quality and uptime.
10% — Core Team & Advisors
Vested over time, aligned with long-term network growth.
10% — Ecosystem Growth Fund
Supporting developer tooling, partnerships, and network expansion.
5% — Exchange Liquidity
Enabling healthy market making at launch and beyond.
5% — Project Treasury / Reserve
5% — Presale
The mainnet launch and Token Generation Event (TGE) is targeted for Q2 2027, migrating the network to full on-chain data verification and activating contributor rewards at scale. MastChain is built on peaq — a Layer-1 blockchain for the Machine Economy within the Polkadot ecosystem — whose SDK and modular architecture are purpose-suited to real-world data infrastructure.
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ROADMAP
Q3 2025 — MVP & Early Network Launch [COMPLETE]
Network goes live. 200+ contributors begin earning tokens. Proof of concept confirmed: real ship signals can flow through a DePIN model at scale.
Q1 2026 — Token Testing & Beta Launch [COMPLETE]
Migration to peaq network. New rewards model focused on proof-of-coverage replaces data quantity metric. Community grows to 500+ members. tWAKE-to-tMAST conversion completes.
Q2–Q3 2026 — API Launch & MastNode Shipping [NOW]
Enterprise-grade APIs unlock verified AIS data for developers and businesses. MastNode hardware ships June 2026 — detecting 40–45% more vessels than DIY alternatives.
Q2 2027 — Mainnet & Token Generation Event
Full on-chain data verification activates. MAST becomes the live token powering rewards, validation, and contributor incentives across the global network.
Q4 2027 — Global Expansion & Partnerships
Coverage extends into underserved regions. Reputation systems deepen contributor trust. MastChain establishes itself as the open maritime intelligence standard.
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THE FOUNDERS
MastChain was founded in Copenhagen by two people who came to the maritime data problem from different directions but reached the same conclusion: nobody could verify the data the entire industry ran on.
Dr. Owen Taylor — CEO & Co-Founder
Holds a doctorate in aerospace composite engineering from the University of Bristol. Prior to MastChain, worked in emissions certification at Automobili Lamborghini and maritime engine manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions — giving him direct experience with how the shipping industry handles data, compliance, and the gap between what gets recorded and what is verifiable.
Daniele Brazzolotto — CTO & Co-Founder
A production engineering leader with over a decade building software and AI systems at scale, most recently as Senior Engineering Manager at Capture One. Holds an MSc from DTU in Copenhagen. Brings the infrastructure engineering depth required to build a global, real-time data pipeline that meets the reliability and uptime demands of enterprise maritime buyers.
Both are keen sailors. The combination of Owen's maritime industry compliance experience and Daniele's infrastructure engineering background is not incidental — it is precisely the pairing the problem requires. One understood what was broken. The other understood how to build the fix.
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THE MOMENT
The timing of MastChain's development arc — from alpha launch in August 2025, through beta and API launch in 2026, toward mainnet in 2027 — coincides almost exactly with the worst crisis in maritime tracking in living memory.
In January 2026, fourteen European nations signed an unprecedented joint letter explicitly calling for the development of "alternative terrestrial radionavigation systems" to supplement compromised GNSS and unreliable AIS. In April 2026, the US Navy established a full blockade of Iranian ports — only to watch at least 26 shadow fleet vessels breach it, in part because the tracking data was too manipulated to enable reliable interdiction. AIS spoofing incidents, dark fleet operations, identity cloning, and GPS jamming are no longer fringe concerns. They are daily operational realities for every institution with exposure to global shipping.
MastChain is not a company that identified a future problem. It is a company that saw a present problem clearly and started building the solution before the world caught up. The world has caught up.
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FURTHER INFORMATION
Website: mastchain.io
Run a Node: app.mastchain.io
MastNode Hardware: mastnode.com
Press Contact: press@mastchain.io
Community: Discord · Telegram · X @MastChain_DePIN