Highly Recommended Report: Blockchain in The Supply Chain: The Hype is Justified | HuffPost (huffingtonpost.com)
The applications of blockchain are many, and businesses are finding new, unique ways of implementing the technology with each passing day. 

Blockchain is already changingbanking, and threatens to disrupt industries far and wide, from music and film-making to cyber security and cloud storage.

Companies with an eye on the horizon are looking to adopt blockchain technology to improve their processes, maintain a qualitative edge, and fend off future competition.

While the technology has found its strongest proponents in the financial sector, it is also gaining immense popularity among serious supply chain managers.

There are several reasons why blockchain and supply chain logistics are a good match, and it’s not because they both include the word “chain”.

Connecting the Chains


Blockchain’s ledger-like capabilities are perfect for bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that was its first real-world application. It is very hard for a single piece of software to support an enormous financial network, as bitcoin has become, but thanks to some creative coding by a still-unrevealed founder, blockchain has true longevity.

The users of the blockchain provide its real power and keep it running in an incorruptible state. Simply put, each computer connected to the blockchain is an individual node in a decentralized web. This web employs its collective power to process transactions, while a democratic algorithm keeps everything in order and uses encryption to ensure the safety of all.

The result of such a system is an irrefutable timestamp of all transactions that took place using the blockchain, and no single entity can alter the data. While obviously suitable for financial purposes, developers and entrepreneurs also quickly realized that blockchain is perfect for supply chain logistics as well.

As for finance, blockchain is a supply chain solution by design. Proper logistics requires meticulous record-keeping for inventories, transactions and locations. Unlike complicated custom solutions, blockchain can deliver this without much trouble.

Evolving Supply Chain


The field of chain logistics is rapidly changing, and will likely continue to evolve with or without blockchain’s help. The industry largely lives behind the scenes, supporting retail markets with little fanfare. However, big things are coming.

Supply chain departments around the globe are increasingly reliant on robotics and digitization to fulfill their goal of reaching peak efficiency with promising results. Blockchain may just prove the technology to get them to that plateau faster.

These days, every stage of the supply chain is digitized with bar code scanners, warehouse robots, QR codes, or some other data creation tool. This is one relevant use of the “Internet of Things”, a new tech field based around internet-connected devices and mobile technology. It’s only logical to use blockchain to collect all this information.

Having a trusted platform for data gathering is a blessing for supply chain, because there is no chance that the data could appear in any other way. The transparent “story” that blockchain data tells makes it easy to identify errors and their source to fix them accordingly.

This will empower supply chain managers to streamline their processes to be as lean as possible.

Companies like Modum are already entering the space and have proof of their blockchain solution’s efficacy. Modum’s system uses an array of IoT sensors connected to the blockchain to log product movements and provide data integrity for the whole supply chain.

The sensors will record changing environmental conditions and other critical information, and then check with a smart contact to ensure that everything is accounted for properly before the goods change ownership. This hands-off, reliable supply chain solution is currently being tested by a slew of partners, and may be one of the first blockchain products to impact the industry at large.

modum.io has allocated 20.1 million of the total 30 million MOD Tokens for public crowdsale. With 2.1 million already sold in the invite-only pre-sale, the remaining 18.1 million are sold in three tiers during their token sale. The funds raised will help to bring their working hardware and tested service to market.

“We have a solid product with several successful pilot tests completed, a working hardware prototype, a strong team of developers, and a handpicked team of advisors.

We are running this token sale to fundraise for the future development of modum.io and will give our crypto-currency backers the same rights that institutionalized investors have,” 
said Modum’s CEO Malik El Bay.

Boost Productivity with Blockchain


It could be that the “killer app” for blockchain has not even been discovered yet. The technology has certainly pushed the boundaries of many existing paradigms, but its potential has not been properly expressed due to its relatively limited embrace. Though bitcoin’s massive gains might...continue reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/blockchain-in-the-supply-chain-the-hype-is-justified_us_59c13dcf...