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Book Review
radically transform supply chain management? Is it see attitude toward blockchain and whether or not
just technological hype that will fade away? the technology is likely to add value. This may be
A presenter from MIT saw three possible futures a sensible strategy to any veteran executive who is
for the integration of blockchain technology into accustomed to seeing hyped technologies rise and
business: 1) the technology becomes a part of fall. Yet wait-and-see is not without its risks. Unlike
the way business is done but doesn’t change many enterprise information technologies that
the structure of the ecosystem; 2) it becomes primarily go inside a company to potentially aff ect
an entirely new way to transact business and internal operations, blockchain is a technology
creates entirely new ways to capture value; and that typically resides outside the company to
3) blockchain is positioned somewhere in the potentially aff ect external relationships. That means
middle of these possible futures, where we see that those companies currently collaborating to
some changes but not many. An informal poll create blockchain applications in the supply chain
of the participants found that most of them will likely get to defi ne how those sitting on the
thought the middle road (option 3) would occur, sidelines will have to work in the future.
although more were biased toward the optimistic, Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and
transformational scenario (option 2). it may evolve in many diff erent ways depending
A second informal poll asked participants on the area of application. An eye should be kept
the following question: Will blockchain on the latest technological developments such
implementations start to generate business in as ‘zero knowledge proofs’, which allows a party
1-2 years, in 3-5 years or in more than fi ve years? to prove something to another party without
The participants were fairly evenly divided revealing the actual data. Zero knowledge proofs
on the topic. Two participants from the same might augment blockchain potential for supply
manufacturing company had diff erent opinions chain applications.
on this issue because they worked on opposite Companies currently have an opportunity to
ends of the supply chain. Blockchain was less likely defi ne how blockchain is used in their supply
to have a near-term impact on the back-end of chains, assuming it is used at all. But even if the
the company’s well-established and trustworthy attempt reveals that blockchain is a just another
network of suppliers and more likely to impact hammer that cannot fi nd its nail, all that scrutiny
on the customer-facing front-end of the supply of potential applications for blockchain may give
chain due to customers demanding a blockchain rise to other solutions to the many ineffi ciencies
solution. and opportunities latent in today’s complex global
Many at the roundtable were taking a wait-and- supply chains. •
June 2019 | Logistics News 17
