Blockchain for Maritime Regulatory Compliance: A Systematic Review of Digital Documentation and Audit Trail Solutions

Abstract

Blockchain has emerged as a promising technology for strengthening maritime regulatory compliance by improving digital documentation, information integrity, traceability, transparency, and auditability across global maritime supply chains. Despite increasing research interest and numerous proposed applications, existing knowledge remains fragmented across different technological domains, limiting a comprehensive understanding of blockchain's contribution to regulatory compliance. This study systematically reviews the literature to examine blockchain technologies and applications supporting maritime regulatory compliance, evaluate their contribution to digital documentation and immutable audit trails, identify the challenges limiting implementation, and determine future research directions. A systematic literature review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) Statement, with evidence synthesised from 130 peer-reviewed publications published between 2020 and 2026 using thematic synthesis. The review identifies digital documentation, immutable audit trails, customs and border compliance, certificate verification, and smart contract automation as the principal application areas through which blockchain enhances regulatory compliance. The findings further demonstrate that blockchain strengthens document authenticity, traceability, accountability, information sharing, and process automation while reducing fraud, administrative duplication, and document verification delays. However, widespread adoption remains constrained by governance challenges, interoperability limitations, legal and regulatory uncertainty, organisational resistance, scalability concerns, implementation costs, and the absence of internationally accepted standards. This study provides a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge, identifies critical research gaps, and proposes future research directions to support the development of secure, interoperable, and institutionally accepted blockchain-enabled maritime regulatory compliance ecosystems.