Blockchain technology is predicted to have a massive impact throughout many industries, including the logistics industry. While best known for it’s role behind the various crypto currencies such as Bitcoin, the technology is widely applicable to many problem in numerous industries.
Supply Chains are becoming increasingly complex with many players involved requiring large numbers of contracts, payments, tracking, and communication.
Blockchain is one such technology predicted to help better connect the many players and “hand-off”s within the industry, bringing efficiency to the many dis jointed elements in any one specific supply chain.
From the Blockchain Research Institute
“Broadly speaking, blockchain technology describes a distributed, highly secure platform, ledger or database where value – everything from money, stocks, bonds, intellectual property, and deeds, to music, art and even votes – can be stored and exchanged without powerful intermediaries. Trust and collective self-interest, hard-coded into this new native digital medium for value, ensures the safety, security and reliability of commerce online.”
Blockchain in the logistics industry will likely be used as a distributed ledger which could provide better transparency throughout the lifetime of a shipment. Blockchain data is decentralized unable to be changed once created thus creating a more secure and transparent information pathway that would follow a shipment from origin to destination. Due to this decentralization, it is unlikely a system could be disrupted due to a localized failure or attack. The implications could mean quicker processes, lower transactions costs and more secure and reliable data exhange within the industry.
However for this to happen there needs to be unified set of standards across the industry, and that’s where Blockchain in Transport Alliance ( BiTA) comes in.
“Blockchain in Transport Alliance is a forum for promotion, education, and encouragement to develop and adopt blockchain applications in the trucking, transportation, and logistics industry. BiTA’s goal is for members to participate, discuss, create, and adopt industry standard uses of blockchain applications and to provide clarity and direction for the development of blockchain technology in the transportation industry in a manner that will create efficiency, transparency, and foster trust. BiTA standards are intended to create a common framework to help organizations develop and adopt blockchain technology. “
Major players in the industry including DHL, J.B. Hunt, BNSF, Maersk and many others are coming together to craft a set of standards that could see blockchain be deployed within the industry.
Over the next several years we will likely see massive industry adoption of blockchain and its application to a number of processes within the logistics industry.
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