Blockchain Projects in Supply Chain Management Industry
Blockchain technology has immensely helped various industries like banks, insurance, health and pharmaceutical industry, energy and real estate. The technology has the potential to replace centralized trusted third parties such as banking trades, land registry and notaries, etc. by distributed systems.
Here in this article, we’ve gathered some of the famous and blockchain projects that are revolutionizing the supply chain management industry.
But first, we will talk about the blockchain technology?
Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is most commonly associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. And most people think that this technology could end up transforming some major industries, from healthcare to the energy sector.
The blockchain technology is based on a peer-to-peer technology, where data is stored in thousands of servers all across the globe. Users on the network can see the entries that are being made in a real-time.
The blockchain is a list of records that keeps on growing, which are called ‘blocks’. Each of the block is linked using cryptography, which consists of a cryptographic hash from the previous block.
In the year 2009, the technology of blockchain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, for the purpose to act as the public transaction ledger of bitcoin.
So let us now discuss the supply chain industry; few of the current problems it faces and the blockchain projects that are all set transform this industry.
Problems faced by the supply chain management industry:
- The current system is obsolete
The times are changing, but the technologies that are used in this industry are below par. Because of this, the industry is facing a lot of complexities in today’s growing world. This thereby creates opportunities for innovators to build their trust value in this industry.
- Consumers demanding for higher transparency
Consumers really want to know where their products are coming from, are the manufacturers conscious about the environment, whether the company is following fair trade practices or not. This builds pressure on the stakeholders of the supply chain.
- Stakeholders are failing to maintain an overview of the supply chain networks.
There is a lot of irregularity in the information and the shareholders don’t actually receive an incentive to share data. This gets difficult at times in ensuring the sincerity of the products as they move across the supply chain. There are quite a few challenges that supply chain faces: eradicating contamination, lowering counterfeiting practices and efficiently managing the supply chain.
Not managing the supply chain efficiently does hurt the customer, environment and the companies that operate their business with true and admissible production methods.
Blockchain Projects on the Supply Chain Industry:
- Waltonchain(WTC)
Waltonchain was the first of the projects to be launched in the sector of supply chain management that is a blend of both physical and the digital world to create a capable system.
Waltonchain is a Chinese-Korean project, founded in November 2016, is a combination of both hardware(RFID chips) and software(blockchain) to build the Value Internet of Things(VIoT).
Here, blockchain technology is used in enabling multiple parties to work together in the supply chain without having to trust any third party.
With the help of blockchain technology, it plans on achieving: Data Integrity for clean audit, authenticity and security.
- Ambrosus (AMB)
Ambrosus was started in 2016, with its primary focus being on two industries: food and pharmaceuticals. By the end of this year, it plans on creating a decentralized protocol on top of Ethereum.
Ambrosus is fused with high-tech sensors, smart contracts and blockchain technology to develop a trusted, verifiable and a community-driven system in order to persuade the quality, safety and source of medicinal and food products.
All this possible with the native tokens of the Ambrosus protocol called “Amber”, which communicates with the smart contracts.
With the help of sensors, RFID chips and QR codes, the Ambrosus protocol will help in tracking the temperature, movements and tampering of the products. The data collected is then uploaded on blockchain for security purposes; sharing the data among counterparties.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Blockchain projects are not only limited to the supply chain industries; it already is creating some impact on several other sectors.
As of now, we can only say that the supply chain industry is pulling in a massive audience, and there is a significant rise in blockchain based projects.