BUSINESS | BLOCKCHAIN
Right: GDPR is one of the challenges blockchain technology providers and users will have to address
according to the company. Meanwhile, DB Schenker, the transport and logistics division of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn, has co-developed a decentralised application for supplier evaluation using the VeChainThor blockchain. Its system aims to rank and track service providers by such factors as the quality of their packaging, transportation times, and overall service.
Blockchain could also underpin an entire
integrated transport system in the future without the need for large, costly, centralised control mechanisms, according to a UK research paper from the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) and the University of Sheffield.
Counting carbon Another novel venture, which is being billed as the “world’s first retail platform that connects consum- ers to their own carbon footprints” was launched as a pilot programme in the UK by non-profit organi- sation the Poseidon Foundation earlier this year. The Poseidon retail platform uses blockchain technology to integrate carbon markets into transactions at the point of sale. Poseidon is partnering with ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s to demonstrate the system at one of its stores in London. The back end of the system runs on the Stellar blockchain network. Environmental fintech company Veridium Labs is
also working in the area of carbon offset trading. The company is partnering with IBM to transform carbon credits into fungible (exchangeable or interchange- able) digital assets that can be redeemed or traded on Stellar. In this relationship, Stellar acts as the underlying ledger, IBM as the token manager or broker, and Veridium provides the environmental expertise and industry structure. The resulting ‘digital environmental assets’ are designed to help companies and investors purchase carbon credits to mitigate their own environmental impacts, and/or hedge against future liabilities. Also in the summer, the Mobility Open Block- chain Initiative (MOBI) announced its foundation
across the transport industry. The aim is to create “a minimum viable network” for the technology that includes car makers such as Ford, GM, Renault, and BMW, public transportation and toll road providers, technology firms such as IBM, blockchain innova- tors such as Fetch and the IOTA Foundation, academic institutions, startups, and regulatory bodies across the globe. Blockchain challenges do remain in terms of
complexity, cost, energy usage, and, some argue, GDPR compliance. GDPR stipulates that data should be permanently erased from storage systems, should that be requested by a data subject. In theory, blockchain makes that impossi- ble, although various initiatives claim to work around the problem, as this report explains. Taken together, however, it seems clear that the potential that these and other blockchain initiatives are demonstrating to transform supply chains for fragile or sensitive goods in terms of authentica- tion, transport, contracting, finance and payments will see this emerging technology adopted across the chemicals sector in the future. And these initiatives are being backed by some trusted names. Welcome to blockchain!
About the author
Chris Middleton is a leading business and technology journalist and author specialising in information technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, enterprise policy and technology ethics. He is editor of
InternetofBusiness.com, contributing editor to diginomica and Computing, and a former editor of Computing and Computer Business Review. He has also written for The Guardian, BBC, Computer Weekly and The Times. Middleton will be chairing AMI’s Blockchain in Chemicals conference, which takes place in Berlin in Germany on 12-13 December 2018.
72 COMPOUNDING WORLD | September 2018
www.compoundingworld.com
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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