Blockchain in Logistics: Review and Comparison

Ice Chain
Ice Chain
Sep 2, 2018 · 2 min read

One could say there are too many blockchain projects and ICOs related to logistics. We have conducted a survey of actual ICO market to clarify the features of Ice Chain. First of all, we did not meet any project with the similar business model. Here, we have chosen the best known, funded and highly-rated projects to analyze and show some typical differences.

All information about the reviewed companies was taken from their official sources, white papers and websites.

Modum and Smart Containers attract the biggest attention because of using devices for tracking cargo transportation conditions. Also, FarmaTrust and Synthium Health were under analysis.

Modum combines IoT sensors with blockchain technology, providing data integrity for transactions involving physical products. The company concentrates on pharma cargoes supply. Modum offers a passive monitoring solution, ensuring GDP compliance and auditability by using blockchain and IoT technology.

The main difference between Ice Chain and Modum is that Ice Chain deals with financial risks and payments. Our project provides an alternative to bank letter of credit and insurance to guarantee trust between contractors and faster deals execution. Ice Chain also can transact payments automatically in accordance to smart contract terms. The Ice Chain smart contract based on QTUM was developed for that.

Smart Containers develops, builds and rents out airfreight containers for medicine and food transports. It combines blockchain and IoT sensors in a logistics ecosystem on the blockchain.

The comparison between Ice Chain and Smart Containers shows that solution we provide can be cheaper and more usable for most companies that produce or transport sensitive cargoes. Evidently, small temperature logger costs much less than a Smart Box which includes both refrigeration and temperature control systems. Moreover, as it was said before, Ice Chain deals with financial risks and payments.

FarmaTrust and Synthium Health are not designed for tracking the quality of sensitive cargo transportation. Their solution for this market is most different from Ice Chain’s one. FarmaTrust uses blockchain to seamlessly and accurately trace individual packets of pharmaceuticals throughout the supply chain with the aim of eliminating counterfeit drugs. Synthium Health is a supply chain management platform engineered for the healthcare industry that enables providers and suppliers to exchange information and conduct eBusiness, cost-effectively.

As analysis showed they don’t deal with financial risks and don’t have any IoT device for tracking the quality of cargo transportation. The companies can provide a blockchain system to guarantee a supply of not damaged drugs. In turns, Ice Chain insures risks associated with temperature damages.

To summarize, Ice Chain has a set of special features:

  • simple business model focused on particular problems of the market
  • simple technology, easy and cheap to implement in actual business processes with no need in significant organizational adjustments or staff training
  • dealing with financial risks and payments

Therefore, Ice Chain can be a definitely unique project which has no alternatives among other blockchain projects for today.

Stay tuned. More to come

Ice Chain

Written by

Ice Chain

Ice Chain is the dApp project aimed to simplify cooperation between operators of the sensitive cargoes. Website http://icechain.tilda.ws/qtum

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