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Not the best article to describe the benefits of blockchain for supply chain management, but the point does get across. Now, I'm aware that many people dismiss

Not the best article to describe the benefits of blockchain for supply chain management, but the point does get across. Now, I'm aware that many people dismiss blockchain technology as a usable medium to store information (instead of your typical SQL database), but one clear advantage is that it's decentralized, which prevents a central authority from tampering the data. For supply chain management, that's not a necessary property, but when you consider product certifications (e.g. biological produce, sustainable whatever, etc.) and authenticity, then decentralization (and immutability) clearly become benefits. While I don't think it's okay to use a blockchain because it's the cool thing to do nowadays, it certainly got me thinking. In December 2017, there was an E. coli outbreak in Canadian romaine lettuce, killing some people in the eastern provinces. Health agencies tried to identify the cause of the contamination, but they abandoned the investigation after a few weeks [1]. I stumbled upon Provenance.org a few weeks ago, and as part of a student project, some colleagues and I decided to develop a Provenance.org clone, mostly as an excuse to learn Ethereum smart contract development and the Solidity programming language (DApps and all that jazz). One challenge we're currently running into is about the granularity of the the product tracking: should a single box of Ritz crackers have its own identifier? Should the entire pallet have a single identifier? How about raw materials that combine to form an entirely new product? Or a pig that's split up into multiple parts for markets to sell? We're looking to open source the project at the end of the term (around May), so if you're interested, reach out to me. As previously stated, blockchain technology might not be the solution to everything right now, but it's definitely interesting and fun to experiment with. [1] https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/public-health-notices/2017/public-health-notice-outbreak-e-coli-infections-linked-romaine-lettuce.html https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/public-healt...

noah-kun 9y ago
Wouldn't the investigation into E. coli have been more fruitful if information were more centralized? Isn't it already decentralized, wasn't that the problem?
- vaillancourtmax 9y ago
  Interesting argument. The problem about this particular investigation (which I can only assume here) is that the available data did not offer relevant information about the tracking of the lettuce. If the required information _did_ exist but wasn't accessible, then you are right in saying that the non-centralization of the data is a problem. I guess the problem then lies in the fact that information is siloed in different businesses. A solution to this could be the concept of federation, where all such businesses use an agreed-upon protocol/platform, but all can use the client of their choice.
  - noah-kun 9y ago
    Thanks for the open-minded reply. Can we push our imaginations further though? We are still thinking about the resources being distributed by businesses, for example. What about communes, central planning or automation, minus private enterprise altogether?
nosuchthing 9y ago
How does the datastore (blockchain / ethereum protocol) validate the authenticity of the input data? What happens if a competitor tries to sabotage a different company by submitting falsified data into the blockchain?
- vaillancourtmax 9y ago
  The data store itself does not necessarily provide authenticity verification natively, so certification authorities would be required to validate the authenticity of the users, which in turn validates its input data, much like the root CAs, intermediate certs and server certs in a X.509-based PKI. The competitor would have its identity tied to the data it inputs, so it wouldn't be able to impersonate the target company.

noah-kun 9y ago

Wouldn't the investigation into E. coli have been more fruitful if information were more centralized? Isn't it already decentralized, wasn't that the problem?

vaillancourtmax 9y ago
Interesting argument. The problem about this particular investigation (which I can only assume here) is that the available data did not offer relevant information about the tracking of the lettuce. If the required information _did_ exist but wasn't accessible, then you are right in saying that the non-centralization of the data is a problem. I guess the problem then lies in the fact that information is siloed in different businesses. A solution to this could be the concept of federation, where all such businesses use an agreed-upon protocol/platform, but all can use the client of their choice.
- noah-kun 9y ago
  Thanks for the open-minded reply. Can we push our imaginations further though? We are still thinking about the resources being distributed by businesses, for example. What about communes, central planning or automation, minus private enterprise altogether?

nosuchthing 9y ago

How does the datastore (blockchain / ethereum protocol) validate the authenticity of the input data? What happens if a competitor tries to sabotage a different company by submitting falsified data into the blockchain?

vaillancourtmax 9y ago
The data store itself does not necessarily provide authenticity verification natively, so certification authorities would be required to validate the authenticity of the users, which in turn validates its input data, much like the root CAs, intermediate certs and server certs in a X.509-based PKI. The competitor would have its identity tied to the data it inputs, so it wouldn't be able to impersonate the target company.