Blockchain is ready for business. Businesses are benefiting from the use of blockchain in healthcare, supply chain, and many other industries. It has the potential to bring trust and transparency to interactions across business and societies.
BLOCKCHAIN FOR BUSINESS
Blockchain is one of the most exciting technologies to emerge in years. The possibilities are incredible, the use cases are everywhere and they reach across multiple sectors. The word ‘disruption’ is overused but in the case of blockchain the hype is justified.
Blockchain technology may have emerged from cryptocurrencies and migrated to financial services, but today it’s disrupting business models all over the world, from supply chain to retail and healthcare. Blockchain is a great enabling technology that can solve problems affecting all organisations, including ours - By providing transparency, security and trust in transactions.
USE CASES
They are everywhere. It is this ability to provide provenance - to track and trace materials, products, and services, that is the biggest driver behind the widespread adoption of blockchain technology - economic potential, predicting that using blockchain to prove provenance could generate US$962 billion for global GDP by 2030 - more than double the potential of any other use case.
Focus on provenance is appropriate, with operations thrown into disarray during COVID-19, securing and strengthening supply chains has become a priority - and digital technologies such as blockchain will be critical enablers.
- Volvo and BMW are using blockchain technology to track the raw materials used in EV lithium-based batteries from the source. This includes the mining of the key component, cobalt, which has historically been marred by child labor and other human rights abuses.
- Mercedes is working on a pilot blockchain project to track CO2 emissions in the cobalt supply chain, as part of its efforts to create a carbon-neutral passenger car fleet by 2039.
- Smart Contracts: Blockchain technology can be used to create digital records, such as certificates, public registers, or agreements, which can be stored, shared, and amended online. As products or materials change hands, records can be added, inspections and deliveries can be logged, and payments can be automated.
Anything that happens to these records can be automatically documented and encrypted for security: showing amendments made, and who sent or exchanged them. There’s no need for a third party, such as a bank or a regulator, to verify these actions because it’s a shared process, secured by cryptography.
Organizations can pinpoint fraud or contaminants with speed and accuracy. The technology can also be used to issue warnings about inconsistencies or trigger an automated dispute.
- One of the major benefits of blockchain technology is that it allows parties to trace the origins and follow the journey of just about anything, enabling far greater confidence and safety in supply chains and helping to prove the provenance of goods, whether they’re fresh produce or raw materials.
Three(3) key areas that illustrate the enormous potential blockchain has in the area of provenance:
its ability to combat counterfeits,
to prove sustainability credentials, and
to promote food or product safety.
- Finding fake goods, and fake news: Blockchain makes it possible to track a product at each access or exchange point. If the new information conflicts with previously uploaded data, organizations will know something has gone wrong and be able to detect the source of fraud immediately.
The public sector will be one of the largest beneficiaries in this arena, as blockchain can counter the risk to society of fake identities, certifications, tax receipts, or even defense equipment and parts.
It also has enormous potential in the pharmaceuticals industry, where up to $200 billion is lost to counterfeit medicines every year.
- Other sectors that stand to benefit include luxury fashion and handbag retailers, the automotive spare parts industry, as well as the producers of goods such as alcohol, tobacco, or vaping products.
THE FUTURE WITH BLOCKCHAIN
Although blockchain offers enormous potential, it is not a silver bullet. Instead, it should be considered as part of a wider digitization strategy. Technology is already changing the way we do business, replacing the tradition of great monoliths that act alone with firms that function as part of collaborative networks.
COVID-19 has exposed weaknesses and gaps in supply chains across the globe, in nearly every industry. As organizations build the resilience to confront these challenges and to meet shifting customer and consumer demands, investing in new technologies has become a critical part of their transformation.
If it is deployed responsibly, blockchain can help them respond to disruptions — and can provide the opportunity to bring trust and transparency to their operations.
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