How blockchain will allow for fewer counterfeit goods and faster product recalls

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

De Beers is putting diamonds on the blockchain. Walmart is putting lettuce on the blockchain. Startups are putting skin care and liquorand fancy watches on the blockchain. By now, it may be safe to say that if someone, somewhere is selling something, someone else is thinking about how a distributed ledger with a buzzy name might help them do it better.
Comb through the hype and the headlines, though, and there are some promising use cases for how blockchain could help solve some of the problems plaguing retail, and even a few initiatives that are already well underway.

A retailer, for instance, might want to record its end-to-end supply chain data on a blockchain in order to track inventory or combat counterfeits (more on both of these ideas later). For this to work, each entity — from factory to distributor to shipper to warehouse to store — would need to participate so that there are no gaps in the data. Then every time a new transaction is logged (say, when a container is scanned at a port or an item is placed on a shelf), it could be validated and bundled with other transactions into a “block,” which would be linked to other blocks to form a blockchain. Copies of the data would be stored across multiple devices called “nodes,” creating a decentralized system that acts as a safeguard against hacking.
If this sounds complicated, it is — particularly when you’re dealing with a tangled web of suppliers spread out all over the world who might still be using paper spreadsheets or clunky software to manage shipments. But with billions of dollars at stake, it’s less a question of if the industry will figure it out than of how and when.

Here are six that technologists, investors, and analysts are excited about now.

Inventory management
Product safety
Anti-counterfeiting
Ethical supply chains
Managing customer data
Payments

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