Blockchain And Trucking Industry: Where The Future Starts Embracing The New Technology
The blockchain is a decentralized distributed technology, planned particularly to change business activities. In October 2008, the theory was introduced in a white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto. After a year, the first transaction was made to exchange the assets between two group. Since then Blockchain has been extensively adopted by the financial industry and has steadily entered other markets, including the healthcare and supply chain.
Blockchain: A Turning Point or Buzzword?
Businesses in the transportation industry may sometimes go down or make their way through, based on their potential to adapt to implement new technology and fulfill the consumer needs. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of news about applying the technology of blockchain into the logistics and operation of couriers and trucking companies.
Blockchain seems to have taken over and it is all over the news, transforming every industry in the market.
First of all, what is blockchain? And mainly, how can it affect the commercial transport sector in such a way that benefits both customers and entrepreneurs?
Here we are going to explore what blockchain is, and the ways of revolutionizing the commercial transport and trucking industry through it.
Blockchain
We don’t want to take the deep dive, so here’s a most general view of it:
The blockchain is a technology that has specifically begun from a branch of mathematics, which is called as cryptography. A gist of Blockchain, its a first decentralized shared digital ledger, as it encircles the list of connected blocks which are stored on a decentralized distributed network, secured through cryptography.
Digital ledger is nothing but a cycle of encrypted “blocks” which are all linked to each other in a public “chain”. Changing data in one block is not possible, without changing data of the entire chain and after receiving general agreement from the entire peer network.
This entire changing of data method makes it extremely difficult to do anything like falsifying data or performing malicious activities. Once the data has reached into the blockchain, it’s pretty much in there for good.
But if you are intended to know about the implementation and execution details of Blockchain, it is required to understand its basic principles, its design, kinds, and elements.
How Can Blockchain Be Used?
Suppose,
- A wants to send money to B
- The transaction is depicted online as ‘block’
- The Block is distributed to entire peer in the network
- Once the peers in the network validate the transaction, then the block is further
- added as part of ‘chain’
- The added block in Chain will provide a transparent and permanent data of transactions
- At last, the money is transferred to B from A
A Working Example Of Blockchain: Bitcoin
You might have heard about Bitcoin. It’s a cryptocurrency i.e. it’s the first decentralized digital currency which is authenticated and exchanged by blockchain. Since there are many built-in advantages of the blockchain, a big crowd is now attracted to Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency. As a matter of fact, there are over 1384 cryptocurrencies and these digital currencies hold near about a trillion dollars of the major capital of the market worldwide.
The commercial transport and trucking sector has been especially active with the application of blockchain technology.
Blockchain Technology and Transportation Industry Is Just the Beginning
Blockchain in logistics and commercial transportation industry have a massive role in factors like:
- Dispute resolution
- Fraud detection
- Protection of sensitive information
- Comprehensive data management
How Has Blockchain A Impact On The Transportation Industry?
The commercial transport sector has always been a risky link in the supply chain, and blockchain technology has an important role to play in this sector. The industry can also have different advantages including faster freight payments, timely status updates, and improved freight security.
The Impact of Blockchain Technology on the Supply Chain:
The key advantages of blockchain technology can be summarized into five primary classifications, namely:
Compliance and Transparency through blockchain.
Better Tracking of Orders and Assets by blockchains and producing more detailed information about the product.
Reduction in Errors in Payment Processing and Auditing, keeping aside a personal opinion, banks sometimes do commit mistakes. But, blockchain can reduce the errors and make it easier to do the transaction.
Identification of Attempted Fraud More Easily with blockchain technology
Greater Trust by Consumers, as the trust is what they can “see” and more importantly if they are able to know from where the product is originated.
At Last, Putting It All Together
Believing in blockchain technology is an essential step forward for the commercial transport sector and the internet as a whole. There are very few times that a technology like this is introduced and people such as, young entrepreneur get excited about its possibilities.
Blockchain technology has many advantages and its range of involvement from transparency and asset tracking to live reviews and ratings from customers. Still, the true range of the benefits of blockchain technology is limitless, and it’s worth seeking the attention of many in the supply chain.
What can blockchain do for the small trucking company or entrepreneurs?
Using blockchain technology for automating freight payments may eliminate approximately 40% of back office labors.
As transportation industry is gradually changing and with its ever-evolving customer expectations and wants, it is essential to know when the technology is taking a new shape that can change the face of the transportation industry.
Concluding with, it’s a hope that an awareness has been raised about Blockchain, and its potential to help the commercial transport sector to address the challenges.
Director and CEO driving business growth and transformation
6 年Always curious to see what other people think of blockchain - fantastic.