Blockchain technology can help tremendously in banking, insurance, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, supply chain of many sectors (agribusiness, luxury, international trade, distribution, wines, aeronautics and automobiles), music industry, energy and real estate. Blockchains have the potential to replace most centralized “trusted third parties”, including bank transactions, notaries, land registry, etc. from distributed computing systems.
1. Medicines / Pharmacy
Blockchain technology can be used to improve the integrity of medicines. If drugs could be clearly identified and traced from production to consumption, it could save up to a million lives each year. Because DHL is already working with Accenture to create a tracking and tracing serialization system based on blockchain technology.
“There are now more than 7 billion unique pharmaceutical serial numbers in the system. In addition, the system can now process more than 1,500 transactions per second,” said Scott Allison, DHL President, Healthcare.
Allison is referring to more than just system capacity. For example, serialization for track and trace should reduce costs, increase security and confidence, and eliminate error-prone data movement. The technology can add additional verified information to the item that cannot be manipulated. Validation is performed by all participants.
“THE SYSTEM NOT ONLY MEETS GLOBAL SERIALIZATION REQUIREMENTS, IT EVEN EXCEEDS THEM,” says Allison
2. Fashion / Fashion
The CGS project allows consumers to track the entire life cycle of a garment. This brings together companies from the fashion, apparel and consumer goods sectors to work together. With this solution, consumers no longer have to blindly rely on the value of fashion for sustainability. Blockchain technology enables tracking of garment sustainability and compliance
3. Cross-border payments
In developing and underdeveloped countries, access to capital for small food producers is often a major problem. Binkabi is a cross-border agricultural trading platform breaking new ground with a blockchain solution from Sweet bridge. Thus, a system for fair trade in goods is to be built.
A blockchain banking solution was recently announced by IBM. This aims to make international payments faster and more cost-effective.
4. Food safety
In the area of food safety, IBM works with food manufacturers Dole, Nestlé and Walmart. Thus, the data of breeders, suppliers, processors, traders, retailers are available not only to all parties involved, but also to supervisory authorities and consumers. So every transaction can be tracked and all food information can be reviewed. Because all members of the food system have access to the blockchain, contaminated food can be quickly removed from the production and supply chain before it reaches the shelf.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is ‘tracking’ fish and seafood using blockchain technology. In this project, the technology should help in the fight against illegal fishing. However, full traceability of fish and seafood is also of interest to fish wholesalers and retailers as they want to prevent their products or brands from being linked to illegal activities.
“CONSUMERS ARE ALSO INCREASINGLY DEMANDING FULLY TRACEABLE FISH AND SEAFOOD THAT ARE NOT FROM ILLEGAL FISHING,” says Bubba Cook, WWF’s West Central Pacific Tuna Program Manager.
5. Humanitarian crises
Blockchain technology is not only used by companies. The UN currently uses blockchain technology in 16 areas, including:
· World Food Program (Refugee Aid)
· Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (donor funding, protection and monitoring of supply chains)
In addition, it is currently exploring how blockchain technology can be used to address current issues such as child trafficking, according to Mahrina von Schlegel, managing director of the Nonprofit Embassy 2.0.
As part of the public-private partnership ID2020, Microsoft and Accenture announced a partnership. The goal is to give 1.1 billion people a legal form of identity and identification through blockchain technology.
6. Jewelry
In collaboration with Everledger, jewelry company Brilliant Earth intends to use blockchain technology to accurately trace the origin of diamonds and other precious stones. This ensures that only conflict-free stones are processed.