Blockchain Supply Chain Skepticism

How? Blockchains don't update themselves based on meatspace events, you'd still have to trust someone to keep track of shipments and add entries to the blockchain.

I don't understand how this solves the problem:- if all links in the supply-chain are properly verifying/tracking components, why can't they send this verif/tracking data to their client's server?- if they're not making a good-faith effort, what does blockchain solve?Blockchain is genuinely good at maintaining an immutable, trust-free ledger. It's NOT good at making sure the data that's written to it is true.

do you have a counter argument for: "you still need to trust the devices that write to the blockchain" -- so ultimately you would be trusting the supplier.

There's probably a block chain startup that solves the accountability problem in supply chains...

i guess the whole point of tracking containers on blockchain was that you don't have to trust middlemen to do the right thing anymore.

Suppliers at every step of the chain enter data into a blockchain. Every organization runs a node. Therefore they can’t lie later and tamper with records when something goes wrong. Investigators can trace provenance easier. That’s it really. An append-only cryptographically secure database would do that same thing, but that’s just another name for a blockchain, which is a rebranding of a specific type of distributed database that has enhanced trust properties.

I don't understand the supply chain use case. You can't trust the third party to enter "shipping container #123 has 10,000 bananas" into a centralized database, but you can trust them to enter "shipping container #123 has 10,000 bananas" into a blockchain? They can still lie about what they put into the blockchain, it isn't magic.

The issue isn't one of trust in the general sense. Blockchain would "solve" the issue of transparency about when and who signed for what shipment where and when. The problem that can't be solved is that you have to completely trust that the blockchain reflects actually physical reality. A blockchain signature doesn't mean it is actually where it says it is. Even if you have some digital "fob" device, how do you know that it is on the right pallet of good. A dig

If anybody can enter and add entries to your blockchain, how do you ensure that they don't insert bogus data? If you're tracing a roll of paper what prevents somebody from adding an entry saying "the shipment got stolen" then immediately making a new entry for it with different attributes pretending it's something else? Or simply at the source pretending that something is of a higher quality than it is?The answer is that you need some kind of vetting and certification

I’ve never been convinced by claims of using blockchains for probably supply chains. While it’s true a blockchain can’t provide a shared ledger that both parties can trust has not been tampered with after the fact, it doesn’t say anything about the world outside the blockchain, so does not remove the trust problem.