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Tracking provenance. Preventing fraud. Managing payments. When we talk about blockchain in business, there’s one use case that comes up time and time again: sorting out supply chains.
Walmart has used blockchain to trace the origins of food, using IBM’s Food Trust, to avoid and address invoice disputes with freight carriers. Social enterprise Provenance uses blockchain to offer a “digital passport” to products in a supply chain, for authenticity and ethical sourcing. And Everledger tracks the origin of diamonds to keep those from conflict regions out of the supply chain.
There’s good reason organisations are turning to blockchain as a supply chain solution, especially as supply chains increase in complexity. The distributed digital ledger offers immutable transparency – ideal for ensuring everyone knows what’s happening in a trustworthy way, even if everyone isn’t speaking directly.
“Blockchain technology offers distinct advantages that make it particularly suitable for supply chain management compared to traditional technologies, including transparency and traceability,” notes Can Taner, Chief Product Officer at crypto payment gateway Bitpace. “This works as an immutable ledger of transactions, like a book that everyone can see and write in, but no one can erase or change what’s already written.”
And that means every transaction and handover within a supply chain can be recorded in a verifiable way, notes Ásgeir Öskarsson, Managing Director of the BSV Association. “Recording each step on-chain limits potential for manipulation and significantly reduces risks such as counterfeiting and grey market diversion,” Öskarsson says. “In industries like pharmaceuticals or luxury retail, blockchain helps confirm product authenticity and safety by enabling secure, end-to-end tracking.”
Chandru Narayana, CTO of Alkimi, adds that blockchain can’t completely solve all supply chain challenges, but is one tool that could be used to address fundamental flaws. “Blockchain isn’t a silver bullet, but when applied to the right problems, it can fundamentally improve how value moves through a system,” Narayana says. “Supply chains, both physical and digital, suffer when there’s too little visibility and too much reliance on opaque processes.”
Here are a few different ways blockchain is helping in the supply chain – and the companies making it work.
There’s a lot of paper in supply chains – even if some of it is digitised. And that requires extreme trust in the documents and other artifacts that collect throughout a supply chain, and simply believing that any data entered was accurate.
“If the digital world and the physical world don’t line up in some way the consequences can be severe,” says Jon Geater, the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of DataTrails. “So having complete trust in the data you see before you – knowing that it has not been tampered with or back-dated, and that it can’t be shredded or changed later – leads to a huge increase in confidence and makes it much easier to throw that efficient automation switch that we’ve been talking about for years.”
DataTrails originally implemented a full blockchain infrastructure before shifting to a blockchain-inspired robust transparency log, creating a platform that creates a complete, tamper-proof history of the data in a supply chain to avoid tampering or cheating.
“So using our platform, with a single API call all critical operations or important documents can be published to the service just before sending, and checked at the other end just before processing, which ensures 100% that what is received is the authentic thing that was sent – who said what when with no chance for tampering, shredding or later cover-ups,” says Geater.
“Both sides are then protected from any accusation or consequences of data tampering, and data transfer can be more efficient and automated because it is also protected from any kind of supply chain tampering or diversion fraud.”
Corporate sustainability. Regulatory compliance. Emissions. How do you track such data throughout your supply chain? It’s difficult, but the rise of EU regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive mean auditable data trails are becoming a necessity.
One blockchain provider, mintBlue, highlights how the ledger tech can help address such challenges via a decentralized platform for data exchange. This allows information to be collected and shared across the entire value chain in a private, interoperable way. Partners retain control over their own data and offer access via permissions when needed.
“Instead of relying on centralized databases or point-to-point APIs, mintBlue utilizes a distributed ledger where data is immutably recorded and accessible to authorized parties,” says Niels van den Bergh, CEO of mintBlue.
He adds this is different from traditional API-based systems. “APIs often create data silos and restrict the ability for independent auditors to verify the underlying data and calculations,” he explains. “By contrast, mintBlue’s approach prioritizes transparency and verifiability.”
In one example, shipping firm software platform DockFlow uses mintBlue to record shipment details including data about carbon reporting, enabling those records to be shared with authorities or regulators when necessary. In such cases, simply giving a final carbon footprint number is considered insufficient – you need to show your work.
“Our platform provides the ‘calculation’ – the underlying shipment data – in a transparent and trusted manner, allowing for comprehensive verification,” van den Bergh says. “This level of transparency is critical for building trust and ensuring the accuracy of carbon reporting.”
Blockchain can help companies in two ways when it comes to paying partners and suppliers in a timely manner: smart contracts ensure payment without delay, while cryptocurrency solutions help manage money across borders.
That causes challenges. Allianz Trade research notes that businesses wait an average 59 days for invoices to be paid, delayed by currency conversions and other traditional finance mechanisms.
Blockchain companies can help speed that along. For example, Bitpace is a crypto payment gateway, which means it allows businesses to accept digital currencies for payment. This helps clients in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa receive settlements in less than 15 minutes via stablecoin.
“Efficient payments are useful across sectors, including supply chain, as late payments and slow cross-border transactions can prove a massive blocker to effective commerce,” notes Bitpace’s Taner. “Crypto payments on the blockchain mean companies along the supply chain can access payments quickly, which can be business-critical given ongoing late payment impacts.”
Smart contracts, meanwhile, automate payment. “These are self-executing agreements with the terms directly written into code,” says Taner. “It’s a computer programme that facilitates an outcome based on a confirmed input, similar to how a vending machine supplies an item based on sufficient money being provided. These contracts automatically trigger actions when predefined conditions are met, such as releasing payment upon delivery confirmation, thereby reducing the need for intermediaries and expediting supply chain processes.”
He adds: “This is particularly beneficial in contexts where multiple parties don’t share a common IT system.”
Not all companies are talking about logistics or even physical goods when they interact with their supply chains.
For example, Alkimi uses blockchain to bring automation and transparency to the digital advertising supply chain. “Rather than physical goods, it’s budgets moving through a network of platforms, intermediaries and data providers,” says Alkimi’s Narayana. “That system is fragmented, opaque and often inefficient.”
The transparency created by tracking all data in a distributed way gives trust to a system where it’s currently lacking. “Blockchain is well-suited for solving supply chain challenges because it removes the need for any one part to act as the one source of truth – it is trustless,” says Narayana.
“In complex systems, such as digital advertising, there are often multiple stakeholders, each with their own reporting and incentives. This creates gaps, inefficiencies and opportunities for misreporting.”
Narayana says that makes blockchain ideal for supply path optimization in the digital media industry. “It helps advertisers understand where exactly their spend goes, which partners are involved, and how much of the budget is actually reaching real audiences and publishers,” he argues. “The same logic that applies to logistics can be used to streamline how digital media is bought and sold.”
For blockchain to continue to evolve into a force to be reckoned with in supply chain management, it needs interoperability and to step beyond trials and pilots, says Narayana. “What’s next is broader adoption, not just pilots or innovation labs, but real integration into how budgets are managed and value is measured,” he says.
“We’re already seeing that in digital advertising, with blockchain being used for SPO, direct buying, and consent-based data sharing. That shift will only accelerate.”
Bitpace’s Taner, meanwhile, predicts that blockchain will become necessary in industries where trust is deeply necessary. “As the global market continues to evolve, integrating such technologies is gaining traction and may become standard in sectors requiring high transparency, such as the pharmaceuticals and food safety industries, where transparency and efficiency are crucial at every stage of the process,” he predicts.
Looking further ahead, the rise of AI agents in businesses will lead to key supply chain tasks being automated, with decision making handed to such systems – making trusted, accurate, verifiable data all the more necessary.
“AI agents will rely on access to accurate and verifiable data to perform their functions,” says mintBlue’s van den Bergh. “Therefore, the ability to securely share and manage data access will become paramount… By focusing on the foundational data layer and access controls, we’re preparing for a future where AI agents seamlessly and securely interact within complex supply chain ecosystems.”
Blockchain isn’t just a technological solution, notes Öskarsson, of the BSV Association – it signals a broader shift toward transparency and accountability. “For businesses, that means fewer losses due to fraud and increased customer trust,” he says. “For consumers, it brings confidence in the products they choose, from how they’re made to whether they’re genuine.”
