{"id":21290,"date":"2017-11-11T19:21:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-12T00:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/the-blockchain-mania-hits-the-supply-chain-will-it-deliver-on-its-promise\/"},"modified":"2017-11-11T19:21:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T00:21:32","slug":"the-blockchain-mania-hits-the-supply-chain-will-it-deliver-on-its-promise","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/the-blockchain-mania-hits-the-supply-chain-will-it-deliver-on-its-promise\/","title":{"rendered":"The blockchain mania hits the supply chain. Will it deliver on its promise?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The blockchain mania<\/u><\/p>\n

We are back in the days that one single word will drive irrational behavior and make investors willing to throw money at your project. This frenzy behind blockchain – the technology behind digital currencies like bitcoin – is reflected in the amount of capital raised year-to-date by companies exploring the technology: more than $2.7 billion in funding [1], most via initial coin offerings (ICO), an unregulated fundraising tool that raises money through the issue of a new digital currency [2].<\/p>\n

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Year-to-date, ICOs have closed more than $2 billion in funding for blockchain-based projects<\/em><\/p>\n

The value behind the technology<\/u>\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

There is a reason behind all this frenzy. The blockchain technology is presented as a piece of innovation on a par with the introduction of the internet itself [3]. It is a secure, decentralized database that everyone can inspect but no single user controls. It is a trust machine that lets people who have no particular confidence in each other collaborate without having to go through a central authority [4]. The problem of trust in a system goes far beyond the financial markets and, it turns out, this technology can be applied in many other use cases.<\/p>\n

The silver bullet for supply chain digitalization<\/u><\/p>\n

The complexity and diversity of interest derived from global supply chain relationships pose exactly the kinds of challenges blockchain technology seeks to address [5]. Traceability of items along the supply chain is one example of such challenges. Information is often siloed on systems developed to serve the information needs of each individual actor, making extremely hard to trace back items on the chain and to have a complete picture of the process [6].<\/p>\n

Blockchain technology can deliver a new way of tracking shipments and transactions of supply chains of all kinds, from food to prescription drugs to diamonds. Because all the participants would be keeping their own live version of all the data, without a central authority, they could immediately see everything that was going on and trust that no one else had tampered with it [7].<\/p>\n

IBM doubles down on blockchain<\/u>\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

IBM has been one of the pioneers to explore blockchain technologies in the supply chain use case. In order to showcase its solution, IBM partnered with leaders, such as Walmart and Maersk, and delivered compelling practical tests.<\/p>\n