With the growing demand for blockchain within businesses, it is becoming imperative that organisations understand the details behind what it is and how it works. For this to happen, businesses need to send their employees for training on the fast-paced technology that is blockchain.
Many businesses are beginning to use blockchain, the majority being within the banking and finance sector. However, there are some more uncommon organisations using it too. Here is a list of a few organisations that would benefit from training their staff about blockchain.
Pharmaceuticals
Within the pharmaceutical sector, there are countless regulations that must be met. These regulations allow a product to be sold ensuring it is safe and consumable. Regulations control many things in the sector, including manufacturing, distribution, and clinical trials. Blockchain allows these regulations to be reliable and efficient. The technology also tackles one of the biggest issues pharmaceuticals face – this being the number of counterfeit drugs being produced.
With new regulations coming into effect, blockchain technology will provide companies with full transparency and immutability throughout the supply chain. This will hopefully reduce the number of counterfeit drugs being produced and sold to the consumer. However, for this to be able to work, the pharmaceutical sector is going to need blockchain experts.
Fashion
Blockchain is becoming increasingly useful in the fashion industry, with counterfeiting and theft being ongoing problems for manufacturers and retailers. The technology is benefitting the authenticity verification of products.
Whether it’s knockoffs of high-end goods such as handbags, fragrances, and watches, or criminals trying to sell stolen goods to legitimate dealers, Blockchain trails can help manufacturers detect product diversion and trademark infringement, and they also enable resellers to verify ownership.
Jewellery
Blockchain can be used within the jewellery industry to track and trace the origin of diamonds and other gemstones, to ensure they are conflict-free. The Hong Kong-based retailer Chow Tai Fook Jewellery has developed a blockchain platform to track diamonds. The mobile app, developed with Everledger and secured by the IBM blockchain platform, will show exactly where the diamonds have come from and what quality they are.
The company believe that the younger generation is interested in the origin and the entire cycle of diamonds. Therefore, it is highly important that jewellers are able to help ascertain the authenticity of gemstones using this modern technology.
Humanitarian Crises
Organisations like the United Nations (UN) are exploring how blockchain can be used internally and externally to support and direct ongoing humanitarian issues such as child trafficking, according to the executive director of the non-profit Embassy2.0. The UN is also using blockchain across 16 different agencies.
This includes the World Food Program, an organisation which helps refugees buy food with an eye scan. Experts say these scans are a faster and more reliable form of biometric identification than fingerprinting. The WFP is trialling blockchain to keep a record of how much food refugees collect and how much vendors are owed. This is supposedly a faster and safer way of making payments, rather than using electronic cards or coupons which can easily be stolen or lost.
Blockchain doesn’t just help with payments for these third-world countries. The WFP also want to apply blockchain to the use of documentation keeping. With the number of refugees homeless and without any documents confirming their identity, blockchain and advanced biometrics are able to offer confirmable identity documents that can be stored in the cloud. These then in return enable refugees to rebuild their lives and careers.
Retail
Blockchain has the capacity to reshape the retail sector within the next five years. Its retail market value will be 29 times higher in 2023 than in 2018, according to an analysis by FinTech entrepreneur and author Monica Eaton-Cardone. Blockchain is benefiting retail in many ways. However, these key areas can only continue to grow and benefit from the technology if there are enough experts advising their organisations.
Supply chain management
IBM and Walmart have partnered on a blockchain-based food traceability initiative, which will supposedly identify the origin of produce instantaneously. Instead of taking almost a week, the data will now be able to be retrieved in just 2.2 seconds. This will prove extremely beneficial in cases of food-born illness outbreaks and safety recalls.
Inventory management
Blockchain is also making it easier for merchants to track the location of goods, from manufacturer to warehouse, to backroom and checkout. It’s also helping merchants replenish inventory in enough time to avoid backorders and out-of-stock scenarios, which have reportedly cost retailers worldwide nearly $1 trillion each year.
There are still large areas which need to be addressed before blockchain technology can be fully implemented on a global basis. However, it is encouraging to see big names like Walmart, Amazon, and American Express leading the way.
If you enjoyed reading this article, why not read our article about which sectors are most impacted by blockchain.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.