Editor’s Note: In 2019, just about everyone in the technology world is talking about and writing about Blockchain distributed digital ledgers, including the supply management world. It’s not the cool new thing everyone’s talking about but hardly anyone’s doing — it’s real, and it’s happening. When mated with other emerging technologies and innovations, like connected devices (aka, “The Industrial/Internet of Things”), digital currencies, mobility, and virtual assistants, the sky is literally the limit for Blockchain. It has enormous potential to disrupt supply chain, risk management, procurement, and finance/accounts payable operations. Because of this potential we’ve been following Blockchain’s rise, development, and news cycle carefully. That is part of my job here at Ardent Partners — a job that I embrace as our resident “Tech Futurist.” So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the latest installment of When Blockchain Meets Supply Chain!
Wazabi? DMG Launches Blockchain-based Cannabis Supply Chain Platform
Earlier this fall, Vancouver-based DMG Blockchain Solutions, which provides distributed digital ledger technologies (DLTs) to businesses, announced that it has gone to market with a Blockchain-based supply chain tracking and optimization tool for the cannabis industry. Dubbed “Wazabi,” the tool incorporates elements of artificial intelligence (AI), such as deep learning and machine learning, into a Hyperledger-based Blockchain platform that company officials say will push further process automation and transparency across the system.
Wazabi enables users across the cannabis supply chain, including third parties like customers officials and regulators, to certify the authenticity of cannabis with certificates of analysis (CoAs), transmitted via secure digital signatures. The system then provides real-time updates as product changes custody, from “seed to store,” to ensure that products trading on the Blockchain are authentic (and not from the black market). Wazabi is also intended to provide fast product recalls in the event that black-market or otherwise unsafe products do make their way onto the legal cannabis market.
Wazabi is an open DLT platform that is said to be able to consolidate enterprise-level databases and programs, like ERP, logistics, point-of-sale, and warehousing systems, onto the platform via application programming interfaces (APIs). The use of APIs to connect all of these systems, with full compatibility with each other, also helps adopters avoid the costly and time-consuming process of integrating them onto one platform. It also helps users provide a “single source of truth” for all products and users on the Blockchain.
Everledger Launches Version 2.0 of its Platform, Secures $20 Million Series A Funding
Earlier this fall, Everledger, a London-based Fintech and Blockchain DLT solutions provider that specializes in product provenance and supply chain track-and-trace, announced a couple of company and product developments. First, Everledger announced the launch of version 2.0 of its Blockchain-based trading platform with enhanced traceability features for retail customers and suppliers, alike. Version 2.0 provides what Everledger calls “evidenced traceability,” further enabling all parties to track and trace precious items like diamonds down to the miner.
Everledger announced a week later that it has secured $20 million in Series A funding from Chinese conglomerate, Tencent, to further drive the company’s growth and product development. According to Leanne Kemp, Everledger founder and CEO, the company has grown 300% in the past two years. In addition to bringing a version 2.0 of its platform to the market, Everledger now plans to launch a WeChat Mini Program for blockchain-enabled diamonds. This, according to Kemp, ought to increase the security and transparency of diamond purchases on the Platform.
New Frontiers: Tradeshift Partners with QEDIT to Build Blockchain-Based Trade Finance Platform
Earlier this fall, our friends at Tradeshift, the San Francisco-based provider of supply chain payments and marketplaces, informed us of a partnership between its research and development arm, Tradeshift Frontiers, and Israel-based cryptographic solutions provider, QEDIT. The two companies are now developing a Blockchain-based trade finance platform that can be used among competitors without revealing competitive information. It will be built atop Tradeshift’s Blockchain platform and incorporate a layer of privacy-boosting cryptographic coding provided by QEDIT that will enable trading partners to “record and authenticate” transferred assets on the shared platform. The goal is to draw more financiers to the platform and to boost more transactions in a trust-but-verify environment created on Blockchain distributed digital ledgers.
Tradeshift Frontiers, Monerium Process First Invoice on Blockchain
Finally, Tradeshift also reported that Tradeshift Frontiers, in partnership with Monerium, an Icelandic FinTech and “e-money” trading solutions provider, reportedly settled the world’s first invoice on a Blockchain using smart contracts and electronic money (i.e., not digital currencies, like Bitcoin). Readers should note that last year, Tradeshift launched its Blockchain-based supply chain financing tool (read about our coverage here and here). Fast forward one year, when Icelandic retailer, Nordic Store, used Tradeshift’s Blockchain-based trading platform to purchase goods from IKEA Iceland. The platform featured a smart contract and, upon completion of the order, the two trading partners “settled” the invoice using Monerium’s digital/e-cash feature.
This is a proof of concept for the use of Blockchain platforms to purchase goods from trading partners, leverage smart contracts to make it legal, and handle invoicing and payment electronically – rather than with manual, paper-based processes or legacy eInvoicing and ePayment solutions.
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