A quick view at any e-commerce page, and you will find immaculate techniques to categorize and sort products. But alarmingly, there is very little or no information about the life of the product. This holds true at varying degrees, for multiple industries such as, life sciences, fashion, consumer goods, consumer durable, financial products, etc.

Products have a complex journey before we get our hands on them. And occasionally, the journey caries on beyond our use of the product. You’ll always find manufacturers assuring you the authenticity of the source of a product, or of a unique nature of how the product was produced. But what do we trust? Regardless of the increasing regulations, there still exists less than acceptable practices, such as sweat shops and an increasing loss of sale to counterfeit products. The solution seems straightforward, being transparent about your Supply Chain, and take it as far upstream as possible in your Supply Chain.

“The challenge”

But there is an issue here. Supply Chains are inherently viewed as a competitive advantage, thus making Supply Chain data secretive in nature.

So how do you make supply chain data more transparent? In existing supply chain systems, there is a data layer between all data silos, acting as a collaborative tool to broker data. Until recently, this was the only way to seamlessly integrate data across a supply chain. In this methodology, you are required to place your faith in a collaborative tool. This defeats the purpose of transparency as you are required to put your faith in a single collaborative tool, assuming it free of all impurities/corruption. Also, security of Supply Chain data is at risk, as you are required to share all data with one collaborative tool. Furthermore, it isn’t really a level playing field for start-ups or relatively smaller organizations to be on the same platform sharing data that makes them unique to regular players in the field.

“The Solution”

Again, the solution would seem simple. Why not communicate directly with each other, eliminating the need for an intermediary. Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a paper about the same principle, the result of the paper being Bitcoin. For the first time, peers could transact digital money (or data) without the need for a bank (or an intermediary). The fundamental concept discussed there was, Blockchain.

Blockchain enables transparency in the stages of a Supply Chain of a product. Blockchain helps better understand products in our world. Where do products come from, who made them, from what materials? Blockchain could carry certified data from a supplier, through a manufacturer, to a retailer and until it reaches us. Enabling us to see the full chain of custody of the raw material, semi-finished good and finally the finished product. All this data is logged onto a common database. It acts as commons for us all to store data securely whilst protecting our identity, creating a block chain ledger. A blockchain ledger is common, access-restricted and secure. Because the ledger is common, it works as a shared form of record keeping ensuring no one person or organization holds ownership of the data. This data record may be accessed by only those involved during the process. Also, no data may be added or modified without the consensus of every participant in the chain, thus no individual may alter the data record, eliminating fraud and error, making it highly secure.

“The Beginning”

It is said that the blockchain is in the state the internet was in the 90’s. For the first time, it is possible for us to cascade information along a chain very securely and be accessed from a product, in a data commons without the need for a centralized authority. It frees up working capital, helps speed up processes, lowers transaction cost, improves transparencies and provides security and trust. It disrupts our present methodologies of working, giving us more time for innovation.

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