Blockchain is both the most overhyped and most promising non-energy technology in the logistics industry today. Logistics executives have been inundated with Blockchain as a buzzword, filled with false promises about how it’s going to cure all that ails them — without ever truly exploring what the tech can do or is made of.
Consultants have worked to sell this hot word, primarily with private or permissioned Blockchains, which create the same data silo and lack of standardization problem we have today — whereas public Blockchains and open industry chains have the potential to be groundbreaking. The ability for all participants in the supply chain to join a new, fast, efficient, standard without gatekeepers or competitors controlling their data is what Blockchain truly is about — not a sales pitch on permissioned chains that are no more beneficial than a central database.
It’s time to weed past the buzzwords and hype and actually work to implement this groundbreaking technology, using open networks and standards like we built the internet on originally.