Leading payment technology provider Mastercard will help consumers directly offset carbon emissions and choose better products for the environment via its blockchain-based Provenance Solution. The system provides such granular detail that consumers can choose a more environmentally friendly cup of coffee, or a sustainable T-shirt, by interacting with the carbon credits directly related to that item, as represented by a nonfungible token and unique marker. Speaking on April 21 as part of the Australian Blockchain Week, Ashok Venkateswaran, Mastercard’s Head of Digital Assets and Blockchain APAC, discussed how the company is working to track the carbon footprint of its partners …

United States aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin has signed an agreement with SyncFab, a Silicon Valley distributed manufacturing platform, to streamline supplier capabilities across Switzerland, offering yet another tangible use case for blockchain technology. Under the new agreement, SyncFab will provide Lockheed Martin with direct access to its parts procurement and supply chain platform, which is built on top of the company's blockchain. The secure supplier intelligence platform connects Original Equipment Manufacturers, or OEMs, to Swissmem members, allowing OEMs to match with suppliers across Switzerland. The platform essentially works as a “matchmaker” between OEMs and subject matter experts, allowing …

Real-world partnerships and integrations into thriving industries are some of the best forms of validation for blockchain projects that are seeking long-term sustainability and widespread adoption. They also have the ability to spark rallies that trigger long-term price appreciation as brand awareness spreads. Since February enterprise-level adoption and a wide array of use cases have worked in favor of VeChain (VET), a blockchain-powered supply chain platform that seeks to use distributed governance and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to optimize supply chain management systems. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of VET has increased more than …

Over the last few weeks, blockchain projects focused on supply chains and logistics have seen tremendous growth as the coronavirus-induced economic gridlock begins to loosen and future concerns related to the global pandemic subside. Three logistics projects that have benefited from the improving economic outlook are OriginTrail, Waltonchain and Wabi. Since early February, each has seen its token price increase by up to 300%. TRAC/USD OriginTrail is a self-described “ecosystem dedicated to making global supply chains work together by enabling a universal, collaborative and trusted data exchange.” The project was established in 2011 with the goal of providing enterprise users …

As Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) gain legitimacy in top financial circles that will eventually help digital currencies go mainstream, projects that offer enterprise-level blockchain solutions are also gaining attention from the corporate sector and investing class. Sold as one of the next technological breakthroughs that will revolutionize the current digital landscape and usher in a new era of decentralization, businesses and corporations have already shown immense interest in how blockchain technology can be integrated into their operations to help save money and increase efficiency. One project that has a focus on enterprise-level blockchain solutions is Unibright, which has seen …

IBM’s food-tracking blockchain technology will be used by the Carrefour multinational retail firm to track food supply lines from the farm to the store. An agreement between Majid Al Futtaim — the firm that operates Carrefour in the Middle East — and IBM will see the retail giant use the IBM Food Trust initially to track two food categories: chicken and microgreens. The IBM Food Trust is a blockchain-specific platform designed for the food industry, hosted on the IBM Cloud. Carrefour, which recorded $97 billion in revenue in 2019, will enable customers to scan QR codes on the products in …

More than half of companies added to the Forbes Blockchain 50 list for the first time this year are using blockchain to resolve logistical issues faced in their line of business. Eleven of the 21 new entrants added to the annual tally are applying blockchain and DLT-based solutions to problems regarding supply chains, product tracking and shipping information. According to Forbes, “hundreds of sizable companies are now using Bitcoin and its underlying technology to make their operations more efficient.” “Most companies on the Blockchain 50, however, are not Bitcoin speculators but rather are looking to employ the technology underlying the …

Blockchain technologies and their associated market gained tremendous momentum this past year. The colossal developments and the aggressive funding of ideas across this nascent industry have sparked some serious debate as to the veritable value of blockchain. Before implementing blockchain technology, managers, builders and developers need to ask themselves one question: “why blockchain?” What necessitates a decentralized system? In order to understand how best to use blockchain technology, we must first define the trust assumptions in the system under consideration. Often, blockchain use cases overlook this question of a third party without ever considering whether that use case could be …

"Mining" may be most frequently used in the crypto industry to refer to the process by which digital currencies are collectively generated — but there are contexts in which firms are adopting blockchain infrastructure to manage the most physical of mining supply chains. The Russian company Norilsk Nickel — the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a large producer of platinum and copper — has joined an initiative called the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network, according to an announcement published on Jan. 14. The Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network, or RSBN, is the outcome of an initiative by the …

SIMBA Chain, a cloud-based smart contract platform, has been tasked with revamping the supply chain of the United States military after it received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Office of Navy Research. The project will be responsible for developing a blockchain-based solution to enable demand sensing for critical military weaponry parts. Demand sensing is a forecasting technique used in supply chain logistics that processes information in real-time to accurately predict demand ahead of time. Work will reportedly focus on constructing a use case centered on the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet — a combat jet which had its first variant …

It would be fair to admit that after 2020 and all it has put us through, making any predictions for the upcoming year is most likely to be a game of blindfold. Meanwhile, I am certain that humanity has much to learn from its past transgressions, and will move forward by correcting our mistakes and weaknesses. That’s what we always do. Undoubtedly, the major driver of our development this year was the COVID-19 outbreak. The effects of the ongoing global pandemic on every aspect of our lives will form our future, and there are some tendencies we started last year …

The University of Glasgow’s Scottish Universities Environment Research Centre, or SUERC, is joining forces with supply chain company Everledger to tackle counterfeiting within the whisky industry, according to a Dec. 18 post. The market for collectable single malt Scotch whiskies reached over £57 million ($77 million) in 2018. However, SUERC researchers estimate that up to 40% of bottles currently in circulation could be fake. Using radiocarbon dating, and unprecedented access to rare whisky samples, SUERC has developed a method to determine the age of all types of vintage whiskies, accurate to within a couple of years. Through this method SUERC …