Blockchain in Supply Chain..

Blockchain consists of transactions (blocks) linked as a chain. Every transaction has a timestamp and the next transaction is linked to it, so we can easily know where that money came from and where it went. Blockchain is a digital ledger that is available to everyone.

These transactions will be verified by miners. All transactions will be saved in the computers of all miners. Anyone can become a miner.

Pros of Blockchain Technology:-

•     Blockchain technology, if used in money transaction services allows peer to peer transactions directly without the intervention of banks and government. For example, if I want to send money to someone in UK, my bank should approve the transaction and after that the receiver’s bank should also approve it. With Blockchain technology, this can be eliminated.
• By this, there is no need to pay extra charges for the banks. Processing of the transaction will be faster, because of no third party intervention.
• There will be less frauds and money laundering incidents, because there will be a ledger of transaction available to everyone. This creates transparency.
• If data has to be modified, certain number of miners should accept it. And hence, there will very less chances of data manipulation and hence results in high security.
• Services using Blockchain technology will be too tough to be hacked.
• Blockchain technology is not just limited to financial sector. This can be used in many sectors such as insurance, health sectors etc.
• For example, in health sector, the health history of people, the medicines they take, treatments they have undergone can be stored using blockchain technology in a chronological order and can be shared with the doctor to provide a better health services to patients.

Cons of Blockchain Technology:-

• We do not yet know the security vulnerabilities of Blockchain technology. We cannot say that it is hack-proof.
• As block chain technology decentralises all transactions, there will be no regulator like central bank. Sometimes, it is very important to have a regulator.
• Blockchain technology is very costly. Verifying transactions (mining) involves encryption and decryption, which requires huge amounts of electricity.
• Though less, there will still be some charge for using financial services that run on blockchain technology. For example – Bitcoin transactions also charges some amount.

Blockchain technology has a lot of potential to solve the present issues especially in the financial sector. Banking sector is making plans to use blockchain technology in its services. In India, NITI Ayog recommended using this technology for land and health records of all states in India. Andhra Pradesh government already started using it for the land records of its capital city – Amaravathi.

 

 

Walmart using Blockchain to improve food safety

Walmart is currently making use of blockchain technology to create a food traceability system based on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric. Along with IBM, the retail giant has already tested two proof-of-concept projects to examine its envisioned system. 

The first project deals actively with tracing the origins of the mangoes being sold across Walmart’s stores in the United States, while the other seeks to trace the pork meat being sold via the company’s different Chinese outlets. From an efficiency perspective, the research team at Walmart claims that by making use of this new system, the time needed to trace the firm’s provenance has dropped from seven days to just 2.2 seconds.

Now, the company claims that because of Walmart’s Hyperledger Fabric-powered blockchain system, the firm has the ability to trace the origins of over 25 products from five different suppliers. In this regard, the firm has even announced that it will soon be requiring all of its vegetable suppliers to adopt this new system so as to enhance operational transparency as well as internal accountability.

 

Maersk

The world's largest shipping company completed its first test of blockchain technology in March 2017, looking at how it could help manage its cargo. In the test, Maersk, Dutch customs, and US Homeland Security were all able to remotely access data about the cargo, suggesting the technology may streamline and secure international shipping.

British Airways

The airline tested using blockchain to manage data about flights between London, Geneva, and Miami in 2017. Using one unchangeable history source, the airline hoped to reduce conflicting flight information coming from gate monitors, flight apps, and the airline's website.

FedEx

FedEx, shipping giant, joined BiTA and has already launched a blockchain-powered pilot program to help solve customer disputes. The company hopes the program will clarify what data should be stored on blockchain to best remedy customer issues.