Blockchain and supply-chain management: its not just me!

Looks like others feel that blockchain and supply-management are a good match. This article in the Globe&Mail goes into some details on using it in the food supply chain, including information on a pilot by WalMart (which sells 20% of the food in the US, OMG I’m not sure how I feel about that!). They have done this pilot in conjunction with IBM, Nestle, Dole, Unilever:

The coalition includes retailers and food companies such as Unilever, Nestlé, and Dole. They will be aiming to use blockchains, a technology that made its name as the basis of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, to maintain secure digital records and improve the traceability of their foodstuffs, like chicken, chocolate, and bananas.

The fortune article has a lot of info about other plays that are joining the pilot, and the results it has yielded to date. But the tl;dr is: to trace a mangoe back to supply, it took six days, 18hours, 26 minutes *before* blockchain, and *2.2 seconds* after blockchain. This means you can fix counterfeits, track ‘mad cow scares’, and so on, very quickly and cheaply.

Pretty soon you’ll be able to hold your google lens up to your carrot, and see an overlay of the farm it grew on, the animals that crapped on it to fertilise it, and, o wait, there can be TMI. Lets leave it to the first clause of that sentence!