Blockchain securing the supply chain (discussion)
Lots of talk going around about how blockchain can secure the supply chain by verifying through every step, every transfer, every touch that the product you receive is in fact the original product.
My concern is, if the product originates outside of the blockchain, then it has to be entered into record by a human or an automated process that a human created. How do I trust that what they submitted is the real deal? How do we know that the product that entered the blockchain is original/authentic?
A human acting alone in theory would get sniffed out in a week or so once the first false product gets noticed. What if the whole company is in on it though … then what? It might take years before we get a whistleblower that informs us of the real deal.
While I think blockchain is a great way to recapture trust in digitally created data, I am hesitant to trust the brokers and others certifying products before entry into the chain. Trust is a major point of failure and I hope we can come up with a way to overcome it.
Example: a toy is created in Germany, entered into supply chain tracking, it gets to the toy store and the asset tag tells you when you check out every step that toy went on from factory to your shopping cart. What’s to stop the toy company from creating the toy in Taiwan, sending it to Germany and then entering it into the supply chain there?
Example 2: the raw materials that create the toy are asset tagged from when they left the mine/recycling plant etc etc etc. Then the toy is given a blanket asset tag that incorporates the materials that went into creating the toy. what’s to stop the mine in South America from sending the materials to a consolidation plant in Spain where it is tagged as a product of Spain rather than a product of the South American mine?
I appreciate any thoughts/input on the topic