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Blockchain Is A Potential 'Truth Machine' For The World's Transactions Posted on : Mar 16 - 2018

There's so much more to blockchain than cryptocurrency. Blockchain may eventually reach into every corner of the business, providing online, "smart contracts" that bind and assure any type of transaction, from exchange of goods to services rendered to employee records.

The money is beginning to flow in this direction. Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $2.1 billion this year, more than double the $945 million spent in 2017, according to estimates from IDC. The consultancy expects blockchain spending to grow at a clip of more than 80 percent a year, reaching $9.7 billion a year in 2021.

What's all this money going to be spent on? Intelligent supply chains may be a big piece of it. Just recently, IBM and Maersk launched a blockchain-enabled shipping platform, essentially, an "end-to-end shipping solution that will give all parties involved in global trade a single view of where cargo is and allow authorities to give electronic approval for its movement," as described by Computerworld's Lucas Mearian.

There are plenty more initiatives in motion. "Many technology vendors and service providers are collaborating and working with consortia such as the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and the Hyperledger Projects to develop innovative solutions that improve processes such as post-trade processing, tracking and tracing shipments in the supply chain, and transaction records for auditing and compliance," according to Bill Fearnley of IDC. Blockchain spending will be most pronounced in financial services, distribution and services, retail and manufacturing, IDC predicts.

It's time to start thinking creatively about how blockchain can be employed. In a recent interview, Michael Casey of MIT explored the implications, as reflected in a new blockchain book co-authored with Paul Vigna of The Wall Street Journal. For example, he relates, the World Food Program is using blockchain to track food distribution. As related in his interview with Rebecca Linke at MIT, he describes how the World Food Program is running a pilot program for 10,000 Syrian refugees, using blockchain to look at transactions, and assure that everyone is provided food allotments. "The World Food Program has millions of clients around the world. They're now able to have a single source of data around that. They're able to stitch together multiple sources of information into one coherent thing and use that without having to do these heavy, time-consuming reconciliation processes." View More