6/26

Distributed ledger technology -- often referred to as blockchain -- is emerging as an important (potentially revolutionary) aspect of managing supply and demand networks.

Bloomberg reports:

With the blockchain, Wal-Mart will be able to obtain crucial data from a single receipt, including suppliers, details on how and where food was grown and who inspected it. The database extends information from the pallet to the individual package.“It gives them an ability to have an accounting from origin to completion,” said Marshal Cohen, an analyst at researcher NPD Group Inc. “If there’s an issue with an outbreak of E. coli, this gives them an ability to immediately find where it came from. That’s the difference between days and minutes.”

As blogged previously (10.24.2016), food safety is a big driver, but once implemented distributed ledger technology can advance plenty of other purposes.  TechCrunch has a nice short piece outlining the potential.