M E GATR E N D S
CRYPTO CONTINUES TO EVOLVE SHIPMENT TRACKING IS ABOUT TO GET STRANGER WITH NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS OR NFTS ENTERING THE MARKET.
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lockchain technology has given rise to unique digital assets and in some cases people are paying millions of dollars to be the official owner of one. Last year an artist scored $70 million USD for the sale of a digital work of art which does not exist in a physical format. ‘Everydays – The First 5000 Days’ by American artist, Mike Winkelmann, is a collage of 5,000 individual images which were made one-per-day over a period of 13 years. This Non-Fungible Token (NFT) can be authenticated for its originality and ownership via blockchain. NFTs are not limited to art and can represent anything from music rights to shareholder votes or even luxury items. A major advantage of using blockchain in logistics is reliable authentication. So, if manufacturers start registering tangible goods with their own NFT in theory this could help prevent counterfeit activity or at least reliably demonstrate crucial details about the history of that product. Imagine using a NFT for semitrailer warranty purposes. What if the trailer builder detailed everything about the trailer build from the initial design through to the production process down to every component fitted. That’s a lot of information documented in a single NFT – a digital asset reinforced by the power of blockchain. Rather than dig around for receipts and paperwork, everything you need for your trailer warranty could be saved for future reference in a NFT. Better yet, if a fleet decides to sell the trailer, the product’s authenticity is on record and can be verified no matter how often it passes hands. Most importantly, anything coded in blockchain is considered to be immutable as it cannot be corrupted or edited. Every transaction is logged and accounted for, which again in the context of a trailer purchase, is tidy, efficiency and reliable. The humble NFT can also solve the problem of oversharing information. There Going paperless means so much more in 2022.
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might be details about the trailer that the owner might not want readily available for public consumption such as sensitive financial information. There should be scope for flagging aspects of the NFT to predetermine what information can be readily obtained by default. There’s bigger questions here including how NFTs communicate to IT systems, other databases and so on. What if you sell the trailer but want to track the journey from point A to B? Again, an NFT has capability to store that information but it obviously can’t do it on its own. Probably the biggest adopter of NFTs for supply chain application would be pharmaceutical companies. It makes sense for such a regulated industry and of course if you are tracking temperature-sensitive goods having a record of measurements from the manufacturer to the final destination (especially if it is a Covid-19 vaccine) would be invaluable. So, would you spend millions on a NFT? www.globaltrailermag.com
