Recently, we covered the advancement of blockchain into different sectors. Particularly, we focused on De-Fi and gaming. In this article, we will discuss another important sector where blockchain will have a substantial impact.
We are talking about the supply chain — the engine of every business. That said, the DLT-powered supply chain projects aim to revolutionalize the global supply chain industry with the help of blockchain technology, smart contracts, IoT, etc. These projects promise to provide transparency throughout the system from A to Z.
Tael (formerly WaBi) focuses on developing a solution that can be used to check product authenticity. It is easily recognizable and integrated into a leading marketplace for genuine and authentic products. The Tael brand is focused around trust and aims to integrate Tael as a method of payment in every store.
If product details do not match with those in the existing database, the company will send alert notifications to both the consumer and the manufacturer.
Importantly, Tael is very popular in China.
How it works:
- Step 1: Consumers securely verify the product with the help of their mobile phone by scanning the NFC label printed on the product in the Tael marketplace.
- Step 2: Through every scan, the consumer can earn Tael. Besides, users can receive Tael for purchases, scanning labels, and more. For every action, the consumer is rewarded — this keeps them coming back again.
- Step 3: Consumers use the Tael they’ve earned to buy products in the Tael ecosystem. They can control the amount of Tael they want to spend per purchase.
Every consumer in the ecosystem is a lifetime Tael holder. Besides, consumers receive additional Tael with every purchase. And these cannot be sold on exchanges.
VeChain focuses on developing a decentralized system that enables the flow of information securely and privately, building trust and transparency across borders and companies. It uses blockchain to track products and identify the counterfeit ones. VeChain’s Technology includes the Proof-of-Authority (“PoA”) consensus algorithm, meta transaction features, protocols of transaction fee delegation, on-chain governance mechanism, in-built smart contracts as well as tools for developers.
The Vechain platform has two tokens:
- VeChain Token (VET) –used to transfer value across VeChain’s network
- VeChainThor Energy (VTHOR) -used as energy or gas to power transactions.
VeChain focus areas include luxury goods, wines, agriculture, automobile, transportation, pharmaceuticals, logistics and audit services.
VeChain has built important partnerships with BMW, Walmart China, Ricci Curbastro, Ruffino among many others.
TE-FOOD was founded in 2016. It considers itself the world’s largest publicly accessible, farm-to-table food traceability system. It serves 6000+ business customers and handles 400,000 transactions each day. TE-FOOD fresh food ecosystem integrates supply chain companies, consumers, and governments/authorities to improve food safety, eliminate food frauds, and decrease costs of the supply chain companies. TE-FOOD’s main focus is on the emerging countries (particularly Vietnam), which account for 60% of the world’s population, but need massive technological disruption because of the level of distrust in their food supply chains.
Some of the important partnerships of TE-FOOD include Auchan (European Retail Giant), Vinamilk (Largest Dairy Company in Vietnam), Graincorp (Bock Chain Beer Project)
OriginTrail aims to design a solution that works interoperably and:
- Shares data throughout the supply chain both internally and externally;
- Connecting legacy source system with the new one;
- Ensuring data immutability by utilizing the blockchain technology (integrity).
It brings trusted data sharing to global supply chains, including Fortune 500 companies in multiple sectors. As an open-source blockchain-based technology paving the way to large-scale adoption, OriginTrail protocol is attracting the interest of the researchers, public institutions, and government decision-makers on an international level.
Notable use cases include:
- Smart Farming: Protects data from Kakaxi’s IoT farming devices, enabling consumers to trust the origin of their food;
- Certification and Standards: BSI is using the OriginTrail protocol to safeguard the validity of issued training certificates and business standards;
- Organic Farming: The OriginTrail protocol is helping with the digital transformation of the European countryside.
Ambrosus is a blockchain-powered IoT network for food and pharmaceutical enterprises, enabling secure and frictionless dialogue between sensors, distributed ledgers, and databases to optimize supply chain visibility and quality assurance.
Consumer products are tagged with an immutable and tamper-proof unique identity mechanism that helps in identifying counterfeits. The underlying idea of this project is based on a decentralized protocol that tracks, stores and transmits assembly-line and sensor data about food, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals.
Ambrosus aims to provide the following facilities:
- Optimizing Supply Chain
- Product Tracking
- Quality Assurance
- Anti-Counterfeit
Technology Used by Ambrosus include:
- Sensor System
- Blockchain Protocols
- Secure Data Storage
Supported Industries include food, commodities, high valued product, medicine, etc.
Bext360 is working to utilize the blockchain to improve the global supply chain for agricultural products. It focuses on the following areas:
- Quality improvement of the supplied products
- Improving supplier community
- Improving the overall environment for sourcing in developing countries
Bext360 uses machine vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to source high-quality agricultural products directly from it. It makes direct digital/mobile payments to farmers, communities, banks, and other stakeholders and other stakeholders. The system facilitates tracking and helps maintain a record-keeping facility that allows the user to directly connect with the supplier group.
Bext360 also provides a complete RESTful API to allow wholesalers and retailers to embed the technology into their websites, marketing, point-of-sale systems, and supply chain management tools.
Bext360 focuses on the following industries: coffee, seafood, timber, minerals, cotton and palm oil.
CargoCoin links the physical world of trade, transport & logistics with the blockchain, by replacing paper documents with smart contracts and providing a secure way of payments throughout the process.
The full-scale scope of the project extends to all transport areas
- Shipping industry (containers, bulk, breakbulk, liquid bulk)
- Inland transportation (trucks, railways)
- Air cargo (transportation by planes, drones, etc.)
- Other types of transportation, including, but not limited to: pipeline transport, space cargo, intercity, and the outer city shared rides.
The system aims to optimize the interaction amongst traders, freight forwarders, ship owners, booking agents and other parties involved in the international trade and transport of commodities and cargoes. The platform architecture is based on the principles of a high level of security, transparency, traceability, and accountability.
CargoX is the independent supplier of blockchain-based Smart Bill of Lading (Smart B/L™) solutions that provide an extremely fast, safe, reliable, and cost-effective way to process Bills of Lading anywhere in the world. The platform is based on the Ethereum network, which aims to change the traditional shipping industry by exchanging the documents digitally. And prevent fraud.
The company is in the final stages of acquiring a renowned P&I certification to comply with international business standards in the cargo shipping industry and provide customers with all necessary assurances of service quality.
Notable partners of Cargo X include Milsped Group, Maker, Fracht AG, OceanX, etc
Modum offers a digital supply chain monitoring & optimization solution that measures environmental conditions at high shipment volumes for the pharma industry. It enables the pharma distributors to fulfill regulatory obligations under GDP efficiently and cost-effectively.
Modum is currently collaborating with the Swiss Post and SAP. They have designed a user-friendly web-based application that will notify deviations in temperature, motion, etc. The entire solution can be integrated into an existing ERP system, such as SAP, and leverage a recorded trusted event for further process automation.
The Modum network promises to provide real-time data by utilizing the benefits of smart devices and smart contracts in one component. This will help consumers to check the authenticity of the product along with the shipment tracking details.
ShipChain is building a fully integrated ecosystem that will track the information of items from the point of shipment until final delivery on the customer’s doorstep. Every shipment is federated & validated in trustless, transparent blockchain contracts. It will also support live-tracking with alert notifications. ShipChain vaults store transport information as encrypted, and owner-controlled data on a sidechain.
ShipChain recently added a new stand-alone final mile solution named, The Delivery Experience Manager.
Following Businesses across industries that can take benefit from ShipChain:-
- Pharmaceutical
- Medical Equipment
- Food, Agriculture, and Farming
- Rental Enterprises
- Logistics Service Providers
- Retail Stores
Conclusion
Unlike in other sectors, the integration of blockchain into legacy industries like the supply chain is relatively complex. The projects mentioned have a humongous task of achieving their vision of becoming an integrated supply chain. While the concepts are interesting and revolutionary, they still require a lot of work. We’ll keep an eye on them.
