People are going nuts for blockchain. As in, there are people who think blockchain can upend supply chain strategy, revolutionize the economy, or do something equally crazy like predict the probability of snow patterns in hell.
Okay, not so much the last bit. But there are people who believe blockchain has the power to transform supply chain strategy.
Here are 7 reasons why.
1. The Global Ledger
Let’s go back to the basics of how blockchain works.
Picture a ledger. A big book where you record the full contents of every transaction.
At its heart, blockchain is a ledger. Or, if you prefer, a database. A huge, decentralized digital database.
Let’s say you want to enter a transaction. You put in all the relevant information and enter it. That entry becomes a block in the blockchain you’re using. The blockchain stores all entries ever received to the chain chronologically, from the first to the most recent.
Anyone with access to the blockchain can see those entries. Every entry anyone’s ever made, and the contents of that entry.
2. Driving Supply Chain Transparency
What happens when every person in a supply chain strategy has access to every record in the supply chain, at every step, at all times?
Well, for starters, everyone knows what’s going on. At all times, at every point, at all points in the history of the supply chain.
This makes it easier to spot mistakes. It also makes it easier to validate transactions, because everyone has the information, and the information cannot be changed (more on that in a minute).
3. Tracking Digital Provenance
And since everyone has access to all parts of an entry, they also know who the entry came from and when — every block has a timestamp and a link to a previous block.
Think about that. You could have all the information you needed about a transaction — more information than you even knew you needed — at your fingertips.
Source/More: 7 Ways Blockchain Is Changing Supply Chain Strategy
