4 ms·

Full supply chain documentation takes a long time to put together. If the application could generate the full supply chain documentation for an item with a cert

Full supply chain documentation takes a long time to put together. If the application could generate the full supply chain documentation for an item with a certain serial number, that would be very useful. It is also very common for suppliers and various intermediaries to have bad document management practices that get further muddled by digital file issues (e.g. people just generating documents from their software that may be different from the real invoice). The issue with that is that not everyone involved wants transparency or wants to know, because you can get discounts from illegal or merely hinky behavior such as through gray market imports. There are good reasons as to why a lot of people involved in bringing products to customers want to see no evil / hear no evil / speak no evil. There's room here for the law to push people into adopting better technology than what is currently used. This is another case in which the paper tech is better for fraud, negligence, and crime than the blockchain tech. It is also more forgiving because it prevents participants in the supply chain from becoming aware of fraud further up the chain, so it prevents them from taking on liability. Transparency sounds great until you learn it means that you have to pay more for the same units because the crime / lax practices that lubed the system up is now infeasible.

castlecrasher2 6y ago
Dumb this down for me, because it's unclear how blockchain would solve the issues you bring up.
- lifeisstillgood 6y ago
  Blockchain is just a ledger. So "the Blockchain" does not make anything significantly better. Its in fact ridiculously expensive. The idea is that everytime sweat shop X finishes sewing sequins on a dress, they can scan the RFID tag on the dress with their smartphone, and the ledger gets updated, and then Walmart can prepare for that dress, the shipping company can print out labels etc. Its a good idea. Industries are supposed to work this out, create their own cheaper blockchains that just need some sort of simple KYC to get started, then its as cheap as email to add your little bit to the supply chain. I dont know of any successful implementations Edit: no blockchain will solve the grey market problems. Everything will have to be made genuninely on the chain. Which starts to lead to probelsm with if you cannot get permission to write to the chain ... etc etc
  - castlecrasher2 6y ago
    I appreciate the response, but it's still entirely unclear how blockchain would help here. In a supply chain, why would blockchain be better than a centralized process? It seems to be trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
    - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
      It's a fine question - I guess politics mostly 1. If the central database is proprietary then it is enforced (usually by a major retailer ie Walmart drives all sorts of RFID supply chain requirements for its suppliers. If blockchains come in this is likely how) 1.a. But which other retailer will sign up to walmart's versions ? So it is hard for all suppliers to sign up to the same standards 2. Open standards make it easier for anyone to write apps to join the chain. 3. it's not at all clear how this is better I will admit beyond "decentralised" and "open". But those are excellent places to start.
    - hnick 6y ago
      Tampering. Bribes, hacking, idiocy, whatever. A proper blockchain is tamper resistant, so everyone trusts it.
      - martin_a 6y ago
        I will bribe people to put wrong information on the blockchain then.
        lifeisstillgood 6y ago
        :-) Thank you
        hnick 6y ago
        I understand your point, nothing is perfect, but surely a public easily-audited blockchain does more to deter corruption and, if it occurs, find the perpetrators? As compared to a traditional system which is basically a log file that anyone with access (such as a rogue IT admin) can change? You can sign entries but unless you have each subsequent entry build on what came before like in a blockchain, entries can be removed entirely and no one will know. There is a reason companies like DHL are interested in such things. https://www.dhl.com/au-en/home/insights-and-innovation/insights/blockchain.html https://www.dhl.com/au-en/home/insights-and-innovation/insig... Example: Our product is sourced from a company and this providence is on the blockchain. It comes to light they employ slave labour and we'd rather cover it up. How do we alter these original transactions without the evidence being in plain sight?

castlecrasher2 6y ago

Dumb this down for me, because it's unclear how blockchain would solve the issues you bring up.

lifeisstillgood 6y ago
Blockchain is just a ledger. So "the Blockchain" does not make anything significantly better. Its in fact ridiculously expensive. The idea is that everytime sweat shop X finishes sewing sequins on a dress, they can scan the RFID tag on the dress with their smartphone, and the ledger gets updated, and then Walmart can prepare for that dress, the shipping company can print out labels etc. Its a good idea. Industries are supposed to work this out, create their own cheaper blockchains that just need some sort of simple KYC to get started, then its as cheap as email to add your little bit to the supply chain. I dont know of any successful implementations Edit: no blockchain will solve the grey market problems. Everything will have to be made genuninely on the chain. Which starts to lead to probelsm with if you cannot get permission to write to the chain ... etc etc
- castlecrasher2 6y ago
  I appreciate the response, but it's still entirely unclear how blockchain would help here. In a supply chain, why would blockchain be better than a centralized process? It seems to be trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
  - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
    It's a fine question - I guess politics mostly 1. If the central database is proprietary then it is enforced (usually by a major retailer ie Walmart drives all sorts of RFID supply chain requirements for its suppliers. If blockchains come in this is likely how) 1.a. But which other retailer will sign up to walmart's versions ? So it is hard for all suppliers to sign up to the same standards 2. Open standards make it easier for anyone to write apps to join the chain. 3. it's not at all clear how this is better I will admit beyond "decentralised" and "open". But those are excellent places to start.
  - hnick 6y ago
    Tampering. Bribes, hacking, idiocy, whatever. A proper blockchain is tamper resistant, so everyone trusts it.
    - martin_a 6y ago
      I will bribe people to put wrong information on the blockchain then.
      - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
        :-) Thank you
      - hnick 6y ago
        I understand your point, nothing is perfect, but surely a public easily-audited blockchain does more to deter corruption and, if it occurs, find the perpetrators? As compared to a traditional system which is basically a log file that anyone with access (such as a rogue IT admin) can change? You can sign entries but unless you have each subsequent entry build on what came before like in a blockchain, entries can be removed entirely and no one will know. There is a reason companies like DHL are interested in such things. https://www.dhl.com/au-en/home/insights-and-innovation/insights/blockchain.html https://www.dhl.com/au-en/home/insights-and-innovation/insig... Example: Our product is sourced from a company and this providence is on the blockchain. It comes to light they employ slave labour and we'd rather cover it up. How do we alter these original transactions without the evidence being in plain sight?