Of the primary potential use cases for distributed ledger technology, supply chain tracking is one of the most likely to seriously disrupt major industries worldwide. To explore this potential more closely, several experts working with blockchain-based supply chain platforms participated in a panel at the Distributed 2018 conference in San Francisco to discuss their experience in the field and make some predictions for the future.
Leading the panel was Adam M. Mastrelli , lead of blockchain strategy and ecosystems at IBM, who used his well-informed perspective in the space to ask informed questions about some of the most prominent hurdles in the future of supply chains. His three co-panelists approached this topic from distinct fields of their own and filled in the gaps between their areas of expertise.
Daniel Goldstein , senior vice president of engineering at Emergent Technology, talked about the global supply chains of the gold trade and how the use of proper tracking can minimize unethical mining. As Goldstein put it, although individual actors rarely act in bad faith, it is still difficult to ensure integrity as "every supply chain is at the beginning of the next one."
Eileen Lowry , global program director at IBM's Blockchain Garage, discussed the potential use of blockchains to track contamination and outbreaks in global food supply chains, minimizing harm to public health as a whole. On a similar note, Susanne Somerville , from Pharma Solutions at Chronicled, discussed some of the possible uses of distributed ledger technology to minimize counterfeiting, human error and other common errors in the global pharmaceutical supply.
These hosts managed to lay out some specific possibilities on one of the most-anticipated sectors of the blockchain space and brought in a diverse range of expertise to do so. The entire panel can be found, along with many others from Distributed 2018, on Distributed's YouTube channel .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.