WWF-Australia has announced the launch of OpenSC, a new blockchain-enabled tool capable of tracking food along the supply chain.
The news comes after WWF-Australia announced their partnership with BCG Digital Ventures, an early stage growth platform who invest in, launch, and scale new businesses.
OpenSC uses “cutting edge technology to track individual products from origin to consumer.” The aim of the project is to help businesses and consumers to avoid “illegal, environmentally damaging, or unethical products, while improving chain accountability and transparency.”
Blockchain technology is immutable, meaning it cannot be retroactively altered. By implementing blockchain technology into supply chains, it should help to monitor where products are coming from and ensure the entire process is legitimate and legal.
Furthermore, the announcement reveals that consumers “can also use OpenSC to learn more about the products they purchase.” To do this, all users have to do is scan a product QR code with the camera on their smartphone. OpenSC will then inform the user where the product came from, its journey through the supply chain, and most importantly, that the product was legally and ethically sourced.
The example provided by the WWF’s announcement is the fishing industry. It details how OpenSC is able to verify whether fishing has occurred in legal waters. They note that by working with Austral Fisheries, OpenSC has been able to trace their “Glacier 51” Patagonian toothfish from the point of catch in the Antarctic waters through to the final customers in Asia, Europe, and America.
The WWF concluded that OpenSC will “enable more responsible and ethical consumption, so that businesses and consumers alike can verify, trace, and share data on the sustainability of their products.”
The news marks another important step in the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology. Recently, Ford entered a multi-party agreement to use blockchain technology to trace minerals along their supply chain to ensure they are ethically mined. NASA also recently released a research paper outlining how blockchain technology could help secure flight data information.
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