Talk to an Expert

5 Growing Startups Using Blockchain to Drive Transparency in Supply Chain Industry

 

5 Growing Startups Using Blockchain to Drive Supply Chain Transparency

Blockchain technology has far-reaching effects on a wide array of industries, and the supply chain industry is not an exception. Blockchain technology has the potential to benefit the supply chain industry significantly in numerous ways. Blockchain can be used to bring about an improvement in the transparency in the supply chain as well as traceability, along with cutting down administrative costs. In addition to this, blockchain helps build trust among all the members involved in the supply chain industry.

With the help of blockchain technology and the use of smart contracts, there is complete transparency from the source to the destination in the entire supply chain. Moreover, tracking of assets becomes accurate, and accurate licensing of all products, services, & software. The use of blockchain technology keeps a record of everything that goes on in the supply chain industry. Most importantly, the records cannot be altered, modified, or changed, which proves to be extremely beneficial. Several startups are working towards a common cause which is to transform the supply chain industry by leveraging the potential of blockchain technology. 

So, let us have a look at these top 5 startups that are looking forward to transforming the supply chain industry.

 1.  Everledger

Everledger

Everledger is a well-known startup offering a specialized platform powered by blockchain. The platform happens to be the place where the supply chain and blockchain meet. Everledger aims to bring about transparency by providing appropriate technological solutions to enhance the level of transparency in the global supply chain industry.

Read Also: Top 10 Growing Crypto Fintech Startups to Watch Out

The purpose here is to contribute much better clarity as well as confidence in the supply chain marketplace where transparency happens to be a strategic imperative. Moreover, Everledger offers sustainability and compliance, thereby helping to build trust in every purchase. 

2.  SyncFab

SyncFab

SyncFab is another reputed startup focusing on end-to-end supply chain traceability with the help of blockchain technology. The startup offers OEM & NPI parts production procurement for supply chain management as well as parts pedigree with blockchain cyber security and digital thread compliance. The specialized enterprise middleware platform from SyncFab permits OEM Procurement as well as NPI Engineering Departments to suitably plan, source, procure, track, secure, and pay for precision parts.

3.  Skuchain

Skuchain

Another name in the list of top startups is Skuchain which offers currency agnostic blockchain for the purpose of giving a liquid supply chain. The specialized currency agnostic blockchain connects procurement & contract management, direct enterprise control of corporate payments, financing arrangements, and tracking inventory in a buildable manner. This, in turn, results in a liquid supply chain, where early payments flow upstream, and data flows downstream in real-time in a manner that has less risk from new pools of capital.

4.  Ripe.io

Ripe io

Ripe.io is a popular startup focusing on the blockchain of food. The startup aims to develop long-lasting trust as well as confidence in the food supply chain via a specialized platform powered by blockchain where everyone can very easily access transparent and reliable information on the origin, journey, and quality, along with the sustainability of food. Ripe.io is bringing about a transformation in the food system narrative by working with each of the participants in the system along the food supply chain for the purpose of building a world where access to data is equal to brand integrity, transparency, security, and better food for all.

5.  CargoCoin

Cargo Chain

CargoCoin is a famous startup that connects the physical world of trade, transport & logistics with blockchain, which in turn helps replace paper documents with smart contracts and offers highly secure escrow payments throughout the entire process. CargoCoin makes use of the transport platform as an entirely secure transfer as well as storage method by means of smart contracts and a payment provider for transport services & cargoes. The platform appropriately utilizes the power of cryptocurrencies for the purpose of acting as an extremely interactive way of receiving, sending, rejecting, approving, and signing documents via the process.

Closing Thoughts

Reading through the post gives a clear indication of the potential of blockchain technology in benefiting the global supply chain industry. In addition to this, the significant contributions made by the top 5 startups in this field have further elevated the overall utilization of the prowess of blockchain technology in an effective way. Their contributions have played a vital role in enhancing the efficiency of the overall industry. 

External Opportunities And Threat For Blockchain Start-ups Going Into 2019

 

The year 2017 proved to be huge for the ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). And from these ICOs the blockchain start-ups have managed to raise a whopping amount of $1.3 billion in the year 2018 which as compared to the mainstream VC is more than the triple amount generated.

These ICOs allow the investors to become the part of the company. What differentiate these ICOs from others is the use of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether in it instead of the cash. In recent years it has been observed that the blockchain start-ups have shown a lot of growth with most of it through the non-financial market segments.

As per experts, blockchain can help create better public services. According to an IBM study it is predicted that more than 90 percent of the government organisations are planning to incorporate blockchain-powered platforms in their work in the upcoming years.

Therefore, the upcoming year 2019 is definitely going to create a mark of its own for the blockchain start-ups. There are many trends that will impact these blockchain start-ups.

Upcoming blockchain regulations

From the past many years with the help of regulators both blockchain- based solutions and the blockchain- based infrastructure were largely unsupervised which had both positive as well as negative impact for the blockchain start-ups. As with the help of these unregulated environment the blockchain starts-ups had the freedom to innovate which results in for a number of solutions for both the financial and non-financial segments.

Well on the other hand due to this unregulated environment the bigger organisations such as banks and other institutes avoid staking claims in the blockchain environment.

In the year 2017, it was observed that many countries opted different aspects to regulate in the blockchain start-ups. Example- In Japan bitcoin was made part of the legal tender by the authorities while in China cryptocurrency markets were ruffled with the ban on virtual currency. Trends like this are expected to continue in the year 2019 as well.

Read more -: Enterprise blockchain development with hyperledger fabric and composer

War against Crypto volatility

As the market of cryptocurrencies is still emerging volatility has come up as the complicated issue which many businesses are facing. Due to the intrepid nature of the industry it is seen that the transactions lead to changing values which causes drop in the coin value.

However, to overcome this problem CanYo.io is launched which is a cryptocurrency-based online marketplace which protects both the buyer as well as the seller from losing the values when a cryptocurrency transaction is conducted.

ICOs will still fuel a large number of blockchain start-ups

Buying and selling of bitcoin is the traditional method for the crypto investors to make money. But as the crypto markets are becoming extremely volatile in the recent years ICOs has come up as the perfect investing platform for the investors who are looking to turn the profit into cryptocurrency.

ICOs became more and more popular and this increased popularity is the reason that many countries are opting regulate blockchain-related platforms. ICOs offer these blockchain start-ups quick and easy access to cash which is the main advantage of using the ICOs.

It has been observed that the value of the ICOs is continuously rising. In the year 2017 it was recorded $103 million in April which in the month of May rose to $232 million, $462 million was recorded in the month of June and a whopping $574 million was recorded for the month of July.

With these increasing numbers analysts predict that this trend will more increase in the upcoming years with the increase in the blockchain uses.

Read more –  Cost of ICO launch

Foray into non-financial industries

The main moto for The blockchain development was as a transactional platform for the cryptocurrencies but with its several advantages it is also being used in non- financial industries which means that blockchain start-ups can operate in other fields also where trust and security are the base.

Slow reception in some market segments

The strength of the blockchain is its weakness as well that is it allows transactions to be stored in public ledger. As with this public ledger the concern of privacy will emerge for the confidential transactions. This has led to slowing of the incorporation of the blockchain in some industrial segments.

The solution coming up for dealing with this problem is the development of the private blockchain networks where the members can only be added with the help of invitations and several other policies and norms.

Scalability issues

Scalability has come up as another big issue for the blockchain start-ups. Due to this the Bitcoin got splitted into two crypto coins recently due to disagreement among the stakeholders on how to scale. The traceability feature of blockchain works as it stores each transaction complete details on the storage nodes which led to increment in the block sizes and also the time to validate individual transactions.

This led to slowing of blockchain transaction as t was lowered to only seven transaction per second which is way too low for an industry where thousand of transactions are taking place every second.

The cryptocurrency networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are constantly working to increase these transaction volumes.

The blockchain industry is still developing potential and has a long way to go but will provide many opportunities for development of innovative blockchain start-ups in the upcoming years.