The World Economic Forum announced Wednesday that more than 100 organizations and experts had joined an effort to build an open-source toolkit for deploying blockchain in supply chains. The project, c
The World Economic Forum announced Wednesday that more than 100 organizations and experts had joined an effort to build an open-source toolkit for deploying blockchain in supply chains. The project, called Redesigning Trust with Blockchain in the Supply Chain, brings together shippers, logistics providers, government agencies, and customs services.
The WEF partnered with the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation to manage the initiative. Participants aim to standardize how blockchain gets used across fragmented supply networks while keeping the technology interoperable and accessible to all stakeholders.
The group includes shipping giant Maersk, technology firm Hitachi, aid organization Mercy Corps, South Korea's customs service, supply chain software maker Llamasoft, and port authorities in Los Angeles, Oakland, Valencia, and Rotterdam.
The consortium will produce an open-source roadmap for supply chain executives considering blockchain deployment. It will outline what makes implementations succeed, flag potential problems, and specify technical and organizational requirements.
Nadia Hewett, the WEF's blockchain lead, said, "As blockchain technology is so new, supply chain decision-makers need clear guidelines, tools and frameworks to help them maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of this technology. This toolkit will be built by the industry and piloted, so we can see what works and what does not. We are going to piece together the puzzle, so others don't have to start from scratch."
The World Food Programme, a UN humanitarian agency, joined the project. The organization ships food and aid to roughly 91 million people across 83 countries each year, making logistics central to its mission.
Bernhard Kowatsch, who directs WFP's Innovation Accelerator, said, "Becoming a part of the Forum's Redesigning Trust: Blockchain for Supply Chain community has provided us with the opportunity to share real-world challenges and use cases, making invaluable connections between the private and public sectors to assist us in the development of our own innovative blockchain for supply chain projects."
The group will release monthly whitepapers documenting what it learns. These papers will include guidance on data privacy, security, how organizations should handle data, the trade-offs between public and private platforms, technical standards that let different systems interoperate, digital identity systems, and digital signatures.
