Future applications of blockchain in business and management

Blockchain for business is built on a shared, immutable ledger that is permissioned to increase efficiency among trusted partners. This enables businesses to transact more smoothly and efficiently.

Blockchain for business is valuable for entities transacting with one another. With distributed ledger technology, permissioned participants can access the same information at the same time to improve efficiency, build trust, and remove friction. Blockchain also allows a solution to rapidly size and scale, and many solutions can be adapted to perform multiple tasks across industries. Blockchain for business delivers these benefits based on four attributes unique to the technology:

Consensus: Shared ledgers are updated only after the transaction is validated by all relevant participants involved.

Replication: Once a block — the record of an event — is approved, it is automatically created across the ledgers for all participants in that channel. Every network partner sees and shares a single “trusted reality” of the transactions.

Immutability: More blocks can be added, but not removed, so there is a permanent record of every transaction, which increases trust among the stakeholders.

Security: Only authorized entities are allowed to create blocks and access them. Only trusted partners are given access permission.

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Across industries around the world, blockchain is helping transform business. Greater trust leads to greater efficiency by eliminating duplication of effort. Blockchain is revolutionizing the supply chain, food distribution, financial services, government, retail, and more.

We all eat – and we’ve all had second thoughts about food safety or freshness. What if we might replace those doubts with visibility into every step from farm to fork? Many companies are now doing just that, sharing and by using data from IBM Food Trust™, built on the IBM Blockchain® Platform.

Discover how growers, processors, distributors, and retailers are making food safer, lengthening shelf lives, reducing waste, and unlocking better access to shared, secure information that impacts us all.

Think of everything that you’ve used today. How did it get here? Today’s supply chain is a complex network of relationships, scheduling, systems, and data. Even the smallest error can lead to delays that have tremendous ripple effects.

By digitizing and automating paperwork across supply chains, IBM Blockchain helps better manage documents across organizations and borders. Including, shippers, ports, customs services, logistics providers, banks, insurers, and others, all in real time and with absolute precision.

Whether it’s between people or organizations, relationships flourish when there’s more trust. From jewelry to insurance to food, IBM Blockchain can elevate that trust to an entirely new level. By helping parties who are transacting together validate and share immutable transaction records on a private, distributed ledger.

This shared record of truth leads to everything from less paperwork and fewer disputes, to happier customers and entirely new ways of doing business.