Freight and Logistics Industries Have Been Outdated For Decades. With Blockchain, Disruption Is Right Around The Corner

Innovation is the result of compounding progress.

If you look at today’s most successful companies constantly at the forefront of innovation, what you’ll see behind them is a long path of small improvements—refined processes, faster technology, and mass consumer approval.

Amazon started off as an online store to buy books.

Apple was known for its computers, long before its iPods, iPads, and iPhones.

And even if technology or telecom companies in the 70s or 80s had come up with the idea for an online bookstore or an iPhone, the tech wasn’t there yet. In the same way that cameras have evolved into camera phones, every industry has to walk its path of slow and steady innovation.

Blockchain technology is about to disrupt handfuls of industries that have been searching for this sort of solution for a long time now.

If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you’ve seen the headlines about Bitcoin, the fading speculations surrounding cryptocurrencies, and the exponential interest building around Ethereum—the blockchain technology platform. In fact, Brian Kelly, an analyst for CNBC, recently stated that “Bitcoin is going to ‘Amazon’ the banks.”

But that’s just the beginning. Ethereum, Bitcoin’s younger brother, is set to have the same kind of impact on the processes behind some of the world’s largest industries: food, big pharma, and freight and logistics, to name a few.

There is already one blockchain platform, called ShipChain, working specifically on the issues freight movers and logistics coordinators face on a daily basis—and which undermine the countless companies that rely on the shipping of physical goods. Freight and logistics is an industry duct-taped together by third-party brokers, shippers, and carriers, all working separately to move a specific good from supplier, all the way to end consumer.

ShipChain is the first blockchain-based platform looking to solve for some of the freight and logistics industry’s biggest pain points: insufficient tracking, poor transparency between parties involved, package fraud and theft, and broker markups.

And the reason why these problems can be now be solved is because blockchain technology is finally here. With Ethereum’s Smart Contracts, some of the industry’s most glaring issues can now be automated, tracked, and stored within a decentralized network.

It’s no wonder, then, ShipChain has already attracted such an impressive advisory board for its upcoming ICO, including famed serial entrepreneur, Kevin Harrington, and NYT best-selling author and marketer, Joel Comm. These are entrepreneurs known for taking chances and wanting to remain at the forefront of innovation—in every sense of the word.

In the same way people continue to doubt the future of cryptocurrencies (and then witness yet another record-breaking high for the price of Bitcoin), many big brands and long-established industries are truly unaware of how impactful blockchain technology is already becoming. According to Bloomberg, Bitcoin and Blockchain skillsets are some of the hottest in demand, and only continuing to rise. As more and more companies and teams of entrepreneurs enter the space, there will be a boom of opportunity for developers, strategists, and creative thinkers.

What makes blockchain such a quantum leap forward from a foundational process standpoint really comes down to its decentralized network. This means information can be stored and accessed through a public ledger, which in the case of freight and logistics means all parties involved can communicate more effectively with one another. And with Ethereum’s Smart Contracts, shipments don’t have to be manually added by a warehouse worker—they can be tracked and fulfilled automatically.

To anyone in the industry, this is game-changing. And the applications for this sort of tech exist far outside just shipping a package. Blockchain is going to change the way food producers track their shipments of temperature-sensitive items (like chicken). For example, ShipChain’s first major partnership is with Perdue Farms.

With blockchain technology becoming more and more of a viable solution, disruption is imminent for industries that rely heavily on big data tracking and order fulfillment.

Freight and logistics is only the beginning.