The Supply Chain is a complex ecosystem where many different actors, often with diverging interests, interact. The blockchain brings these actors together by offering everyone end-to-end visibility of the expeditions.
Examples of blockchain include:
- The classical cryptocurrency – Bitcoin
- The protection of private data on a state level
- The optimization of internal cash flows of a large bank
- The calculation of insurance rates for autonomous vehicles
- The traceability of premium wines.
Consumers have become very demanding. The brand is no longer sufficient to guarantee the quality of a product according to them. They require additional information: “Where do the products come from? What are they made of? How are they manufactured?”
But this information about the origins and stages of transformation is difficult to obtain and consolidate because of the large number of actors and subcontractors involved throughout the chain.
The blockchain is designed to provide solutions to complex ecosystems where there is no central actor, where collaborating actors do not naturally trust each other, where access to data must be centralized and where data protection is essential. This is the case of the supply chain.
Blockchain guarantees security, traceability and confidentiality. Indeed, each event that concerns a given product (production, processing, transport, storage, delivery, etc.) is recorded, in the form of a transaction, in the blockchain. Then, the system tracks the documentation and packaging associated with this product as well. By entering his own internal ID number, a principal will be able to track his goods outside his network and independently of the successive IDs affixed by other actors.
There are also other advantages. For example, in the event of a large-scale alert (counterfeiting, health alert, etc.), a brand can easily identify the affected lots and return merchandise and/or awareness campaigns will be perfectly targeted.
The blockchain is intended to store evidence of the existence of documents. A print of the document is created and stored in the transaction. This information can be accessible to all or restricted to certain defined actors. A transaction may, for example, stipulate that a commodity is certified organic and specify the certificate that attests it and the means of consulting it.
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