Chain Business Insights
  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Sherree DeCovny
      • Ken Cottrill
    • Custom Research
  • Our Research
    • Smart Contracts in Supply Chain
    • Blockchain and the Future of Food
    • Blockchain in Trade Finance
    • Surveys
    • eBook Series
    • Blockchain Meets Supply Chain >
      • Purchase eBook
    • Blockchain in Smallholder Farming >
      • Purchase eBook
    • Blockchain and the Future of Food eBook >
      • Purchase eBook
    • Blockchain in Legal Cannabis >
      • Purchase eBook
  • Insights Blog
    • Chain Reactions Podcast
  • In the News
    • Our News
  • Contact
Continuous Intelligence for Blockchain-Enabled Supply Chains
Picture

RSS Feed

For Supply Chains, Ethereum is Everywhere

7/28/2017

0 Comments

 
By Pete Harris, Co-Founder and Research Principal
Picture
​When it comes to POCs of blockchain technology for supply chain applications, one specific platform is getting a lot of attention. Called Ethereum, it’s often referred to as a “world computer” for its ability to run computer programs known as smart contracts.

Like the Bitcoin blockchain, Ethereum is – right now, at least – a public blockchain that anyone can make use of, and where data (and computer code) within it can be viewed by everyone. Unlike Bitcoin, the platform is not just for transmitting money from Alice to Bob, but allows Alice or Bob to run smart contract code that facilitates some kind of transaction, such as transferring ownership of some asset.
 
Assets could be money or a financial instrument, but they could also be digital intellectual property, a registration of a vote, or a token/legal document that represents ownership of physical property, such as a car or a house, or indeed some commodity or quantity of goods passing along a supply chain.

Smart contracts can be written in a number of programming languages, and can include “IF … THEN … ELSE” logic so that code segments are only executed if certain conditions are met. Also, data can be pulled from external sources in order to feed decisions, allowing business rules to be encoded. For example, in a supply chain, a payment might be initiated only when a shipment of goods has been confirmed as moving from seller to buyer.
 
Since its launch in July 2015 – it’s still officially in beta – Ethereum has become popular because it is both flexible and freely available for use or modification (as it is open source). That has led major corporations, including the likes of J.P. Morgan, Microsoft and Thomson Reuters, to work with it, while encouraging a large number of startups to base business applications on it.

Last year, J.P. Morgan released (also as open source) Quorum, a version of Ethereum with access and privacy controls that is more suitable for private blockchain use. Since then, the investment bank has become a key player in a consortium called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which is working on standards for an ‘official’ version of Ethereum for private blockchains. The consortium currently boasts around 150 members, including major companies as well as many startups. Many more are currently being onboarded says the EEA, which also recently announced the formation of a working group focused on determining common issues to be addressed in the supply chain space.

Given its major corporate backing, engaged startup ecosystem and a technology roadmap to support both private and public blockchains, and to improve performance, it’s not that surprising that companies involved in the supply chain space are embracing it. Here are a few of them …

More
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Ken Cottrill

    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Picture


    ​Sherree Decovny

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All
    Blockchain Fundamentals
    Use Cases
    Vendor Focus

    RSS Feed


Copyright © Chain Business Insights, LLC  2020

  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Sherree DeCovny
      • Ken Cottrill
    • Custom Research
  • Our Research
    • Smart Contracts in Supply Chain
    • Blockchain and the Future of Food
    • Blockchain in Trade Finance
    • Surveys
    • eBook Series
    • Blockchain Meets Supply Chain >
      • Purchase eBook
    • Blockchain in Smallholder Farming >
      • Purchase eBook
    • Blockchain and the Future of Food eBook >
      • Purchase eBook
    • Blockchain in Legal Cannabis >
      • Purchase eBook
  • Insights Blog
    • Chain Reactions Podcast
  • In the News
    • Our News
  • Contact