An Overview of Blockchain in Supply Chain: What’s the Link?

BBCStaticMiner is a digital asset technology company that mines cryptocurrencies with a focus on the blockchain ecosystem and the generation of digital assets.Managing the supply chain is one of the biggest challenges faced by modern-day global companies. These companies devote a tremendous amount of resources to investigating inefficiencies and identifying areas of cost reduction.Forward-thinking companies are now investigating blockchain as a technology that could potentially revolutionize supply chain as we know it. Analysts predict that blockchain technology is capable of improving the contemporary supply chain structure by increasing supply chain trust, efficiency, and transparency.Increasingly, supply chain leaders are recognizing that the future of supply chain may lie in blockchain solutions. In 2019, a survey performed by PwC revealed that 24% of industrial manufacturing CEOs were planning, piloting, or implementing blockchain technology. Then, in 2020, Deloitte’s Global Blockchain Survey revealed that 55% of its senior executive and practitioner respondents viewed blockchain as a top priority. In 2021, Business Wire reported that the market for blockchain in supply chain is predicted to grow from $253 million in 2020 to over $3 billion by 2026.Blockchain is often equated with cryptocurrency, but in fact, blockchain technology has many applications beyond functioning as a virtual currency platform. To understand how blockchain fulfills a need in supply chain, it is first necessary to understand how blockchain works.A blockchain is a string of encrypted data blocks. Let’s break that down: The “blocks” of the blockchain can be conceptualized like a file containing information (the “data”), and that information is locked so that only those with the key can access the information (the “encryption”).Many files (or blocks) are linked one after another into a “chain.” Each file (or block) of data includes the following types of information — a timestamp to indicate when it was created, historical information…