Beyond Bitcoin: How Enterprises Can Integrate Blockchain | AppDynamics
Blockchain is already used in a handful of applications including cryptocurrency. This year, as more people set their minds to understanding the technology and finding creative applications, we will see a sharp increase in new use cases in industries as diverse as agriculture, finance, healthcare, energy, and manufacturing.
Supply chain: … a women’s apparel retail store does a booming business in a particular line of handbags. The store’s inventory management system sends a purchase alert when it’s time to order, and through the blockchain, the application sees available inventory and triggers a sales order. There’s no need to verify the inventory is in stock; because of the transparency, the system knew that before it placed the order. Payment is automatically generated and transferred in real time, bypassing the bank entirely. With blockchain, a process that takes weeks could be completed in a matter of minutes.
Food and beverage: When you deal with perishables, keeping an exact chain of custody is imperative. Walmart has partnered with IBM to test a blockchain application that tracks the pork it sells in China. Every step the product takes between farm and cash register is documented on the blockchain. The record shows where it originated, how and when it was processed, which truck transported it, at what temperature it was stored, when it will expire, and which store bought it.Right now, this application is only in the testing stage in a very small market, but the clear benefits mean it won’t be long before using a blockchain in the food and beverage industry becomes best practice. [1]
“Limited blockchains”: Blockchains aren’t only helpful when exchanging valuable assets with entities outside the enterprise trust circle. Some of the applications with the most creative potential are in private use cases where the data is shared with a smaller, pre-defined value chain. In many instances, these blockchains will be used in tandem with off-blockchain solutions and brokers because enterprises won’t have the advantage of a vast P2P network of distributed entities. In this sense, they’re limited blockchains.For example, the handbag manufacturer we outlined above may use a limited blockchain to manage its production schedule. From the sales team to the shop floor to the warehouse, every touchpoint in the product lifecycle is recorded on the blockchain, while more granular business processes are controlled off-blockchain. Or in healthcare, a consortium of medical care providers and insurance companies could use the blockchain to decentralize patient health records, creating one source of patient data. However, because of HIPAA regulations, there may need to be an off-blockchain application matching each blockchain node with the corresponding patient’s sensitive identity information. [2]
The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, one-tenth of our GDP will have made its way onto the blockchain. For a nascent technology, that’s a bold prediction. But we’re living through a period of technological transformation that moves at unprecedented speeds. If you’re not already thinking about blockchain, you may already be behind.
[1] Also known as Provenance
[2] Also known as Private Blockchains