At MastChain, our goal has always been simple to say and hard to do well.

We want to bring real world maritime data on chain in a way that people can trust, scale globally, and feel good about contributing to. That means data that is verifiable, infrastructure that is resilient, and incentives that are fair to the people who actually generate the data.

What we are building is not abstract software. It is a physical network.

MastChain relies on AIS receivers deployed on ships, on shore, and in remote locations around the world. These are real devices producing real data every minute of every day. That data has to be authenticated, validated, and processed continuously. If the underlying infrastructure is not designed for that reality, the system simply does not work.

Because of that, the blockchain we build on is not a cosmetic choice. It is a foundational one.

After a long period of technical evaluation, internal debate, and strategic planning, we made the decision to build MastChain on peaq.

This decision was not driven by hype or by what people expected us to do. It was driven by what we believe gives MastChain the best chance of succeeding over the long term.

peaq is a Layer 1 blockchain that is designed around physical infrastructure and machines rather than purely around accounts and applications. Devices have native identities. Data provenance is a first class concern. Verification and accountability are built into the core architecture.

For a network like ours, that matters deeply.

AIS data only has value if you can trust where it came from and how it was produced. peaq allows us to associate data with specific physical devices, authenticate those devices cryptographically, and verify data on chain without relying on fragile external systems. These capabilities are part of the protocol itself, not features we need to bolt on later.

That foundation gives us confidence as we scale from early deployments to a truly global network with thousands and eventually millions of data sources.

AIS data is also high frequency and continuous. It does not arrive in bursts. It flows constantly. peaq is built to handle that pattern with predictable fees, stable throughput, and reliable performance under sustained load. That predictability allows us to focus on improving data quality and contributor experience rather than worrying about congestion or cost volatility.

From an engineering perspective, peaq also gives us a development stack that reduces complexity. Support for both EVM and WASM smart contracts, along with DePIN focused tooling, means our team can spend their time on maritime logic, validation rules, and incentive design instead of rebuilding basic infrastructure that already exists.

Another important factor for me personally is openness. peaq is built within the Polkadot ecosystem and interoperability is part of its design philosophy. That means MastChain is not boxed into a single environment. We can integrate with partners, analytics platforms, and downstream users across ecosystems as the network grows.

Just as importantly, peaq is focused on the machine economy. Its roadmap, partnerships, and community are aligned around real world devices and infrastructure. Being surrounded by projects and people who are solving similar problems makes us better. It creates a shared understanding of what matters and what does not.

The peaq community understands uptime, hardware failures, real world constraints, and long term deployment challenges. That shared context is incredibly valuable for a project like MastChain.

Choosing peaq was about choosing infrastructure that respects the reality of what we are building.

Real devices. Real data. Real economic activity.

I am genuinely excited about what we can build on this foundation and about the people we get to build it with. MastChain is still early, but this decision gives us confidence that we are standing on ground that was designed for the journey ahead.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far. We are just getting started.

Talk soon

Owen

Co-founder and CEO

Mastchain.io