Trace Alliance — the collaborative hub for the resolution of supply chain challenges, using blockchain technology

Nino Pirtovšek
OriginTrail
Published in
5 min readFeb 26, 2018

Having recently demonstrated what OriginTrail’s technology is capable of delivering in relevant supply chain environments globally, our team has sparked great interest from industry stakeholders. From companies who want to use the protocol as end users, to those who want to implement the protocol in their existing applications (service providers), different individual developers, knowledge centric companies, the TRAC token community and others.

When thinking how to interconnect with these differing stakeholders and entities, we attempted to identify the most lean method of utilizing the knowledge and capabilities available to benefit all. We designed and initiated an ecosystem of parties interested in OriginTrail, which will act as a collaboration hub, called the “Trace Alliance”.

Visit Trace Alliance website: https://alliance.origintrail.io

Trace Alliance framework

What is the Trace Alliance?

The Trace Alliance is a collaboration partnership hub connecting businesses, startups, academics, business leaders and technology vendors with supply chain subject matter experts. The collaborative effort of the alliance resolves different organisational challenges in supply chains management. The Trace Alliance was formed to establish common ground for the prompt and effective utilisation of blockchain up to its full potential. Support from different industry leaders is key for optimal platform development. The Trace Alliance allows companies to receive early access to developing technologies, facilitating new application deployment centered around the OriginTrail protocol.

How does the Trace Alliance work?

Different organisations have different supply chain challenges. Companies often have problems with finding quick and effective solutions. When an organisation identifies a supply chain challenge, the Trace Alliance will start a collaborative process to provide the most appropriate solution. During the process, members will share their knowledge in structuring the problem and arrive at a solution. Within the Trace Alliance, the OriginTrail protocol will be a center point in connecting organisations with supply chain challenges to members with the capabilities to resolve them.

Identification and resolution of challenges will be conducted through:

  • Live meetings focused around challenges
  • Multi-organisational task forces working on various challenges
  • Theme based work groups: Periodical or ad hoc workshops with multidisciplinary teams from different organisations, taking part in defining the scope of the challenge and best available solutions
  • Technical workshops: analysis and debates about action plans and tech feasibility
  • Business model evaluation after confirming tech feasibility

Who should join?

Considering the deployment process and scalability of OriginTrail protocol, we are targeting four main groups of protocol contributors:

1. Corporations (or companies) that want to use the protocol for their supply chains challenges and seek quick and effective solutions. Companies in this group are represented by retail companies, manufacturers, logistics providers etc.

2. Service Providers that act as integrators of the protocol, as well as companies with limited IT resources and insufficient blockchain experience. In addition, Service providers are able to develop different kind of IT solutions and dApps on top of protocols (User Interfaces). Within this group, you can find companies like ERP integrators, IT consulting companies, software and hardware applications providers for supply chains, etc.

3. Knowledge centric entities are able to supply the knowledge and expertise to supply chain challenges from a theoretical or strategic point of view. These entities include universities, consulting companies, organizations that are establishing standards, etc.

4. The development community, which is represented by individuals or groups of developers who possess the knowledge and interest in blockchain and supply chains. This part of the community will help to improve the open source solution that is provided by working on the protocol design core and by developing dApps or plugins tailored to specific supply chain challenges for OriginTrail.

What benefits can members expect?

  • The opportunity to be amongst the first users of the OriginTrail protocol and carefully selected complementary solutions
  • Access to inputs from other organisations for technical feasibility purposes
  • Access to brand new business opportunities and up-to-date technologies
  • Being part of the blockchain environment for supply chains
  • Co-branding on the website and within communications
  • Exploration of results and gaining knowledge from real use cases
  • Being part of different supply chain challenges and witnessing their resolution
  • Fast and proactive resolution of supply chain challenges based on blockchain

What obligations do members have?

Members do not have any direct legal obligations, all that is required from members is that they provide:

  • A collaborative approach to other alliance members.
  • Internal subject matter experts and other full-time employees as necessary, to resolve issues.
  • And implement OriginTrail blockchain solutions, where applicable.
  • Proactive participation in Trace Alliance activities.
  • An open channel for communication with the Trace Alliance.
  • Their agreement to be publicly listed as a Trace Alliance member.

How to join?

You can join through our website: https://alliance.origintrail.io/become-member

How much does it cost?

The Trace Alliance is a voluntary organization with no membership fees in the first couple of months.

Our future activities…

Each day we are gaining additional traction and increased proactive participation of the community members in terms of business development. Trace Alliance members are regularly receiving newsletter, engage in a LinkedIn group, get invitations to webinars…

In addition, we are preparing the first ever Blockchain and Supply Chain Summit, where we want to connect all of the Trace Alliance members, not only online, but also face to face, to discuss common issues, acquire new connections and resolve the challenges we are all facing.

The success of the test network releases has enabled us to start broadening our focus on new applicants, as per our roadmap. Our key focus in this process is to make the onboarding process for all potential partners simple and effective for all. To achieve that, we have prepared an online Technical Implementation Kit. All the relevant and detailed information on what it takes to start using the OriginTrail protocol are in there, as well as a step-by-step process regarding technical specifics, data structures, and development plan.

For any additional information, don’t hesitate to visit https://alliance.origintrail.io

Trace on!

👇 More about OriginTrail 👇

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