THE SYMBIOSIS OF BLOCKCHAIN AND SUPPLY CHAIN
Recently, supply chains are in constant transformation with the globalisation of the blockchain technology. This reform movement led to the creation of the “Trusted IoT Alliance” and some technological innovations.
The main purpose of the “Trusted Iot Alliance” is to regroup companies to create an open-source blockchain protocol that will manage IoT technology throughout all economic sectors. The principal actors involved in the project are Bosch, BNY Mellon, Cisco, Gemalto, and other companies.According to Digital Journal, ” The alliance partners have agreed to support pilot schemes, to publish open source code, and to coordinate standards and reference architecture.”
The Journal also states that “The long-term aim is to develop a trusted IoT ecosystem that connects cryptographic and registrant identities, plus metadata, to give any Internet-connected device a digital, transferable certificate that can be inventoried and managed across any blockchain networks, to be accessed by any company with appropriate security clearance.”
The Executive Director of the Trusted IoT Alliance, Zaki Manian, mentioned: “The Alliance’s vision is to support the creation of a secure, scalable, interoperable, and trusted IoT ecosystem and to become a key forum for enabling rapid development of mature IoT enabled blockchain use cases and specifications.”
Other companies are working in the same direction such as IBM, which just signed a new partnership with Maersk, a transportation and supply chain giant. This alliance wants to perform global supply chains with an underlying blockchain-based technology. The purpose of the blockchain is to make the international trades more efficient and secure.
Presently, approximately 4 trillion dollars in goods are exported each year and 20% of that sum is lost by companies because of the high transportation and logistic costs. Something very expensive for supply chain companies is the production, recording and storage of tracking documents. Since the blockchain is a decentralized ledger, companies will be able to cut the costs of shipping by a large proportion.
According to Digital Journal, “Part of the plan will involve the digitization and automation of paperwork filings, allowing users to submit, validate, and approve documents across organizational boundaries in a secure fashion.”
The blockchain technology will probably disrupt many industries in the coming years. The supply chain is one industry that the blockchain technology can help transform. The “Trusted IoT Alliance” has recently been founded and other companies sur as IBM are following their footsteps to apply the blockchain technology to the supply chain and shipping all across the globe.