Singapore-based blockchain startup VeChain (VEN) and global logistics provider DB Schenker have co-developed a blockchain-based supplier evaluation system, according to a VeChain Foundation post published today, June 12.
A new decentralized application (DApp) will use the VeChainThor blockchain to score DB Schenker’s third-party logistics partners in China based on collected data – the result being an evaluation for services such as packaging, transportation, and the quality of goods.
The Vechain Foundation claims that the DApp is the first ever implementation of blockchain for supplier management purposes:
“In the future, the system and its related applications can potentially evolve into a platform [that is] widely shared and co-constructed by a broad range of logistics service providers.”
VeChain is a Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider that targets enterprise-level businesses. The project’s native cryptocurrency VEN is currently ranked 17th on CoinMarketCap’s listings, with a market capitalization of roughly $1.6 bln at press time.
DB Schenker, the transport and logistics division of Deutsche Bahn, manages supply chain solutions for air, ocean, rail and land transport, as well as contract logistics. According to VeChain’s post, the firm employs 68,000 logistics experts in 2,000 locations globally, 5,700 of whom are based in China across 60 of the country’s cities.
Blockchain’s potential to rehaul the logistics and supply chain industry by providing the tamper-proof tracking of products is being recognized by an increasing number of global industry giants, among them Maersk, IBM and FedEx, as well as South Korean electronics leader Samsung and Walmart.
Earlier this year, leading members of the logistics industry – which employs the most people in the world – told Cointelegraph that blockchain technology is “a matchless solution” for innovating the transfer of goods, services and value globally.