Solving Healthcare’s Provider Directory Challenge With a Single Source of Truth
Provider directories are one of the most fundamental parts of the healthcare infrastructure: They list all the physicians in the area broken down by the insurance plans they accept and the medical services they offer, and some might include professionals like nutritionists or physical therapists. Without these essential directories, it would be difficult or even impossible for patients and providers alike to understand the medical resources available in a given area.
Provider directories become better with more data, but they also become more complex to manage. Details such as a provider’s address, contact information, service offerings, equipment availability, insurance affiliations, and more can (and do) change frequently. With this, keeping everything updated for hundreds or thousands of providers — ones with various healthcare networks and ever changing service offerings — proves to be a serious administrative challenge. Without the time, staff, or tools to keep up with the pace of change, we get inaccurate provider directories that only make healthcare less accessible and efficient.
Various mandates require directories to undergo complete updates monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or yearly. This repetitive provider directory management undertaking contributes to the estimated $300 billion the healthcare industry spends every year due to administrative complexity “that could be eliminated without harming consumers or care quality.” Everyone agrees we need a better way to manage provider directories — and emerging technologies could certainly provide that solution.
The Cost of Provider Directory Management
Inefficient provider directory management might sound like a minor problem that creates a small cost. However, the healthcare industry spends $2.1 billion on provider directories annually — and often with underwhelming results. (In fact, a Medicaid audit found that more than half of provider directories contain significant errors.) The scope of this problem should be cause for alarm. When provider directories aren’t accurate and complete, there are implications beyond wasting a few billion dollars.
Those include patients who go to out-of-network providers, providers that struggle to keep their billing and administrative costs down, health information exchanges that cannot share information securely, and health plans that risk regulatory noncompliance. The point is, anything less than a perfect provider directory has negative impacts on both the healthcare industry as a whole and the patients it serves. Unfortunately, the scale and complexity of provider directory management make it highly prone to imperfection. That’s where blockchain in healthcare comes in.
Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: A Revolution in the Making
There’s no shortage of blockchain applications in healthcare, and there will be many more as healthcare-related digital transformation becomes a priority throughout the industry.
When it comes to provider directory management, blockchain could eliminate the need for directory managers to contact each provider directly to inquire about information updates. Instead, those providers could report that information to a blockchain — a distributed ledger with immutable information — whenever something changes (think phone numbers, office addresses, and so on).
At the same time, a smart contract can trigger such changes to all records that are applicable, thus reducing manual efforts. In this way, keeping a provider directory up to date would simply mean having providers update the blockchain directly in one place (rather than forcing insurance companies to make their own lists).
A decentralized repository of provider information — one that’s verified by trusted third parties and acts as a single source of truth — could also eliminate the need for multiple entities to manage common data elements across different directories. Finally, a provider directory based on blockchain could integrate with other technologies and data sources to become a high-value resource by providing additional services on top of such a network. These capabilities might include automated credential checks, real-time notifications on facility status, and the automation of repetitive and mundane tasks that go into managing provider data.
Blockchain and healthcare are natural partners because they have similar priorities: accuracy, security, privacy, efficiency, and accessibility. For the purposes of provider directory management (and countless other aspects of healthcare), a blockchain serves as a single source of truth that integrates all critical information under one umbrella for all participants. In this particular blockchain use case, it integrates up-to-date information from providers so individual entities don’t have to solicit updates themselves or operate with an incomplete, out-of-date directory.
Even in other aspects of healthcare, blockchain’s use cases promise to streamline almost all aspects of administration. Imagine what could happen if countless patient directories — each with its own issues — consolidated into one accurate, authoritative directory that also happens to be simple for the patient to privately control, manage, and share.
The network might provide sufficient privacy protections and protocols using zero-knowledge proof to exchange personal health record information without revealing sensitive information. Because it can safely integrate with systems, blockchain’s applications in this healthcare function promise to upend expectations and elevate results faster and further than we’d ever think possible.
In short, provider directory management is simply the foundation for many future healthcare-focused solutions that can be built on the blockchain. This sets the stage for a shareddigital transformation in the healthcarespherethat benefitsall parties — whether that’s by paving the way for scalable precision medicine, ensuring pharmaceutical provenance, enabling real-time collaboration on healthcare claims, or one of its many other promising capabilities.
Now, the question for leaders in the healthcare sphere is this: How could blockchain-based digital transformation shift your organization’s day-to-day functioning for the better? Learn more about blockchain’s array of use cases in digital transformation here, or reach out to Chainyard to discuss how it could fit in your own strategy.
This article was originally published on Trust Your Supplier..
Today in the world of Supplier Information Management speed and risk mitigation are tremendously important in establishing the partnerships so critical to business growth and success. Unfortunately, most organizations have been unable to address these challenges. Did you know that the typical timeframe to onboard a new supplier within many enterprise organizations is more than 30 days? In a world where speed is currency, that can have a huge impact on a business’s ability to pivot, grow, and innovate. A lot of that has to do with the information required to vet a new supplier, and the work required to do that vetting. Numerous spreadsheets, portals, systems, and unsecured document exchanges make this a very cumbersome process. And on the supplier side, each customer demands this same information, creating an incredibly repetitive and non-value added work effort. In summary, it’s a lot of inefficiencies and unnecessary attracted cost for everyone.
Trust Your Supplier (or TYS), addresses these pain points and more. Built on IBM Blockchain, TYS is a strategic collaboration between Chainyard and IBM and a revolutionary solution that brings efficiency and optimization to address these challenges. It’s compellingly different than any supplier management network in operation today. Simply put, TYS creates a Trusted Source of Supplier Information and Digital Identity that simplifies and accelerates Supplier Onboarding and Lifecycle Management. Supplier-provided trusted data, their identity, is used by buyers to validate and manage the partnership. It’s immediate access to real-time data that generates massive savings and reduction of risk. The value proposition is compelling for suppliers too. The single blockchain-based profile eliminates redundant submission of the same information multiple times to different buyers and reduces time to the first transaction and ultimately when they get paid. They are also discoverable on the network, creating opportunities for new business with other buyers on the network.
And the game-changer is the TYS Data Marketplace. Such as an App Store on your mobile device, this marketplace is a collection of gold-standard services available from firms that are the world’s leading authorities on financial health, sustainability, risk & resilience, and a host of other capacities that help evaluate the performance of your partners. Renowned firms like Dun & Bradstreet, Rapid Ratings, Ecovadis, and many others offer their services directly on the network where their ratings, scores, and evaluations are aggregated into a single, seamless view for the user. This dramatically reduces the time required to conduct due diligence and qualify a partner, saving time and cost. Best of all, free content is available from practically all of these providers, while advanced premium services are can be purchased ala carte to meet your specific needs.
To ensure state of the art, enterprise-grade trust, TYS is built on Blockchain, creating a decentralized system that is not controlled by a single company. It can quickly become a global standard for supplier and buyer collaboration as well as increasing the participation of third parties who can provide services into this neutral environment.
It’s clear the new normal in supplier management centers on trust. Knowing and trusting your suppliers, in corporate responsibility, sustainability, diversity, financial stability, and a host of other areas are key to ensuring enterprises can responsibly conduct business. Suppliers need to build that trust and continually demonstrate this commitment to their partners. The partnership has never been so important.
Blockchain and IoT work better together — and they’re poised to fix some of the biggest problems facing companies in the era of digital transformation.
Blockchain’s Potential for Easing IoT Adoption
Last year, companies were expected to spend more than $1 trillion on digital transformation for the first time, following a roughly 18% increase in spending from 2018 to 2019. We can expect that upward trajectory to continue increasing sharply in coming years as well. A new generation of technology is here, and we’re quickly approaching a point where everyone needs a digital transformation strategy to avoid being left behind.
It’s safe to put IoT devices high on the list of technologies companies should be investing in, as these internet-connected devices play a huge role in a digital transformation strategy. Why? Because they bring the analog online, whether it’s critical industrial equipment or medical devices. If digital transformation strives to create a seamless digital link between everything, IoT provides ever-important inputs to ensure transparency throughout.
To put this into perspective, consider an airport. It’s filled with high-tech devices: passport scanners, X-rays, magnetometers, fingerprint kiosks, and (during pandemics) infrared thermometers. Each of these devices is individually important, but only by working together can they effectively secure an airport. IoT makes that possible by linking each device into a broader security platform that can quickly identify and respond to threats — whether that’s a virus outbreak, mounting security concern, or something completely different.
IoT adoption might be crucial for a digital transformation strategy, but it’s not the only crucial element. In fact, without blockchain, there are legitimate questions about whether IoT can live up to its potential.
How Blockchain Safeguards IoT
A recent Gartner survey demonstrated that most companies adopting IoT are alsoadopting blockchain. This led one Gartner vice president to comment that “the integration of IoT and blockchain networks is a sweet spot for digital transformation and innovation.” Apparently so, given that the same survey showed 86% of blockchain adopters are using the technologies together in projects designed around their complementary strengths.
The strength of IoT is to extract data from far-flung devices and link these devices into information networks, but trust and security must also be considered. Connected devices are vulnerable to all manner of cyber attacks, and because they have few if any built-in security protections, they’re easy targets.
There are two main avenues nefarious actors will take when trying to gain access through IoT devices. First, hackers will often hijack these tools to participate in distributed denial-of-service (or DDoS) attacks where they bombard a server. Because IoT devices are relatively easy to commandeer, they’re generally easy to ensnare in DDoS attacks. Second, IoT devices create large amounts of data and network activity, and due to high volumes of both, it’s difficult to pinpoint, stop, or assess attacks. Security concerns related to IoT have held back its large-scale adoption, and for good reason: Imagine what would happen if airport security devices came under attack.
This is where blockchain comes in. Savvy companies are pairing their connected devices with blockchain because it offers a uniquely applicable way to address IoT’s privacy and security concerns. There are a few reasons for this: Blockchain is a decentralized database that has no single owner, and the data within can only be added to (not changed). In essence, it becomes an immutable and transparent record. The extensive use of cryptography makes blockchain databases even more private and secure from outside threats. At the same time, consistent logic applied within the blockchain creates trust between the participants.
So how would blockchain and IoT work together? One use case for blockchain might involve quelling fraud and counterfeiting. Blockchains could be loaded with detailed product information for each legitimate product produced by manufacturers. Customers in stores could then scan a product tag to authenticate whether it came directly from the brand manufacturer. At purchase, that buyer could also be cryptographically logged into the blockchain to complete the chain of ownership
Thanks to blockchain and IoT, brands could make a real dent in the rising number of counterfeit goods flooding the market. They could also transform their relationship with customers, given that they have a detailed transaction history for every product sold. This is just one example of how blockchain is used in business, but it illustrates why blockchain and IoT work better together — and how they’re poised to fix some of the biggest problems facing companies in the era of digital transformation.
The business value of blockchain is too significant for businesses to ignore — and if you haven’t already, it’s time to consider a framework. When you’re ready to discuss how blockchain fits into your own digital transformation strategy, contact Chainyard.
Understanding Digital Transformation and Blockchain’s Applications
Digital transformation was already a hot topic before 2020.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and companies depended on technology to adapt, digital transformation took on even more importance. It went from being an abstract idea or long-term goal to something that companies needed to make major strides toward immediately. Many months later, the transformation plan (or transformation itself) should be well underway.
So what should this plan include? That depends on the digital transformation strategy a company adopts. Each one will mix and match different hardware, software, cloud, and tech-driven capabilities to serve its own business interests. In most cases, though, digital transformation will involve a panoply of emergent technologies that have, in large part, either come online or reached maturity just in the 21st century: Advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, internet-connected devices, 3D printing, 5G wireless, and autonomous vehicles are some of the best-known examples.
Global spending on technologies and processes related to digital transformation topped $1 trillion in 2020 after growing nearly 18% in 2019. Spending has been and will be robust now that so many solutions that looked promising in the past are becoming commercially viable on a large scale. Also driving digital transformation is the never-ending need to improve operational efficiency — something the latest generation of technology excels at. Finally, the fact that early adopters have proven the value of tech like AI or IoT makes holdouts willing to try new things.
Companies serious about using digital transformation to their advantage should consider blockchain’s use cases. Although it’s not as flashy as other technologies (such as an autonomous robot), blockchain applications have the potential to transform industries more than any other solution. In doing so, they could also help companies that currently lag behind the competition and struggle to gain market share leap ahead of others. This highlights the extent to which digital transformation driven by blockchain isn’t just a tech initiative — it’s at the core of the business model and strategy.
Blockchain technology has applications in almost any business, but there are certain environments where a shared ledger is particularly advantageous. Some startups are building forward-thinking products and services around blockchain applications, often using tokenization, decentralized finance, and identity. Other more mature companies are discovering enterprise use cases for blockchain that help organizations become more efficient, productive, agile, or insightful.Given what blockchain applications can and will do, it’s no surprise that a majority of respondents to a Deloitte survey (55%) consider blockchain a top priority. More surprising is that 83% of respondents worried their company would lose competitive advantage if it didn’t adopt blockchain. The case for this technology is compelling, especially in the era of digital transformation. The lingering question for many organizations is how to make use of this technology for real-world applications, and the remainder of this post provides some guidance.
Blockchain Use Cases
Blockchain ledgers come in many forms and accomplish countless objectives. In fact, their flexibility explains why questions still linger about what, exactly, blockchain does. Below, we map out a few blockchain use cases that illustrate the deep impact it can and will have on adopters.
Digitizing Asset Management
Companies like IBM own countless hardware and software assets that power offices around the world. However, tracking these assets across global supply chains and through their entire life cycle (from manufacturing to deployment and finally to disposal) represents a seemingly insurmountable challenge that countless producers in technology and other industries struggle with.
However, tracking and managing them at scale throughout their entire life cycle is no longer a distant possibility — it’s now a reality. And with the advent of blockchain asset management tools, it’s not even particularly challenging.
So how does all of this work?
Put simply, every asset receives an entry in the blockchain ledger that’s updated whenever the asset moves elsewhere. The ledger becomes a single source of truth for everything relevant to asset management, whether that’s an item’s location, condition, or destination. Supply chain partners also contribute to these decentralized blockchain ledgers, as it improves their own product management efforts.
In general, digital transformation strives to improve efficiency by using tech to eliminate friction points and information deficits. When it comes to asset management, blockchain applications accomplish exactly that by integrating everything and everyone in one place. Those applications rely on four primary components — a shared ledger, peer consensus, smart contracts, and privacy — to create an automatic paper trail behind assets that everyone trusts.
IBM is already experimenting with blockchain’s applications in supply chain management — as will many others. As the supply chain undergoes digital transformation, anticipate blockchains (and the expectation to participate in them) to become the standard.
Streamlining Payments and Invoicing
We live in a world of electronic payments, but a startling 80% of companies still pay invoices with paper checks. Of course, an analog payment process slows things down for all involved and leads to more errors along the way. Still, old habits die hard, and many companies still feel more confident dealing with paper checks than they do relying on the various digital B2B payment tools available to them.
A blockchain ledger could finally push things in the other direction. With a shared ledger, two sets of payment records condense into one: Eliminating the back-and-forth part of the payment process with blockchain helped one company reduce its invoice rejection rate from 9% to 0.5%, for example.
In another instance, global bank HSBC leveraged the efficiency of blockchain ledgers to process upwards of 3 million foreign exchange transactions in one year. A vast accounts payable and receivable industry exists to handle payments, and blockchain could support, supplement, or replace much of the work that accounting departments handle, all while improving the results. That’s exactly what digital transformation strives to do.
In addition to automating the core mechanics of the payments process, blockchain ledgers can keep the process itself from breaking down. For example, when a shipment arrives incomplete, incorrect, or damaged, blockchain can quickly amend the invoice in a way that both parties agree upon. The involved parties don’t spend weeks or months resolving a payment dispute — because a blockchain ledger does the same thing instantly (and largely automatically). Given how perfectly suited blockchain is for digital B2B payments, digital transformation around payments appears to be just around the corner.
Improving Supply Chain Management
Global supply chains create as many issues and inefficiencies as they solve. Relying on hundreds or thousands of partners and suppliers located around the world leads to frequent breakdowns in a supply chain that’s supposed to run like clockwork. Blockchain technology prevents supply chain issues in many cases and minimizes damage when it can’t. In the same way that it’s the ideal solution for a vast, complex payment system, blockchain’s supply chain management promises to turn persistent supply chain issues into rarities.
It does so by eliminating the paperwork that’s still common in supply chain management. Instead of stakeholders scribbling down figures, soliciting signatures, and shuffling around documents, everything happens inside a shared ledger. Using blockchain for supply chain transparency yields such excellent results that the participants share (and trust) the same information instead of keeping independent records multiple times over. Disputes, delays, and defective products have fewer consequences and a faster path to resolution when a blockchain ledger is embedded into the core of the process.
On a wider scale, producers that can harness blockchain in their supply chain management have a powerful forecasting and fulfillment tool at their disposal. Shared information between suppliers, producers, and purchasers leads to better demand forecasts. Likewise, it streamlines logistics: All partners know what arrived when and where, as well as the condition it’s in.The need for privacy and security have always been obstacles in a global supply chain that runs on partnerships and predictability. Blockchain technology bridges that gap by making important nonsensitive information visible but immutable, all while keeping sensitive data private. It’s almost like having an independent auditor who tracks everything happening in the supply chain objectively, automatically, and without stopping. In this way, stakeholders get a transparent view of what’s going on and can align their efforts for shared benefit.
How to Implement Blockchain Into Your Digital Strategy
Like any other process change,implementing blockchain in supply chains, payments, or any other aspect of operations takes a clear strategy. Advantageous as blockchain might be, a tool is only as strong as the person using it and the purpose it’s carrying out. Blockchain adoption could be the highlight of digital transformation — but without proper planning, it risks under delivering. With that in mind, consider these points in your blockchain implementation quest:
Three examples of areas where blockchain is an obvious choice for consideration are:
There are also some areas where blockchain isn’t a good fit. Two examples include:
Act Boldly With Blockchain
It’s hard to overstate the potential of blockchain. After all, it’s something with the potential to improve sweeping aspects of operations while creating opportunities to revolutionize the business model and strategy from the core of the organization outward. If the digital transformation road map is about turning companies into something totally new and definitively better, blockchain can make a significant impact.
It’s no wonder why Gartner thinks blockchain will create over $176 billion in business value by 2025 before skyrocketing to $3.1 trillion by 2030. And the blockchain use cases outlined above are hardly the only areas where distributed ledgers will elevate expectations; areas such as compliance, cybersecurity, and data-sharing will improve as well, to name just a few. Given what blockchain can do, it’s easy to see why it’s a critical component of any robust digital transformation framework.
Early adopters will reap the rewards of blockchain sooner and see them multiply over time. Holdouts won’t just miss the benefits of blockchain — they’ll also inhibit their own digital transformation efforts in many cases. Put yourself at the front of the pack by leveraging blockchain technologies early and to the fullest extent possible.
Want to learn more about ensuring a viable, realistic, and rewarding blockchain implementation within your own organization? Download our free whitepaper to get started.
This article was originally published on Forbes
The USPS is turning to their blockchain to strengthen democracy in the United States. Blockchain is being evaluated by the United States Postal Service as demonstrated by a recently published patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that claims a combination of the security of the blockchain and the mail service can provide a reliable voting system.
Today, blockchain is driving a paradigm shift in the way businesses are thinking. Blockchain’s potential to transform many processes across most industries has been noticed by enterprise, government, and education leaders across the globe. Gartner predicts that blockchain will generate an annual business value of over US$176 billion by 2025 and in excess of US$3.1 trillion by 2030.
Where can blockchain be used for business? Does it replace our ERP system? Is there an easy way to identify blockchain for business use cases? This blockchain article explores some of the basic questions asked by leaders looking to apply blockchain to their businesses.
What is blockchain?
From a technical point of view, blockchain is a distributed ledger technology where every transaction (block of data) is stored across every network computer. Each block is added after reaching consensus among all the network members. More precisely, each block is appended only with a hash of the previous block and a timestamp. This combination gives blockchain platforms four core characteristics of immutability (tamper-proof), decentralization (peer to peer), consensus (integrity) and finality (transparency).
From a business point of view, blockchain is a trust protocol. The data is a single source of truth across members without the presence of a centralized official copy, eliminating the need for remediation we often see with today’s business processes. The immutability and transparency ensure provenance and traceability of changes. The decentralized nature enables a peer-to-peer sharing economy. Most importantly, smart contracts ensure immutable logic (a business contract), which is executed without human interaction as per the conditions and trigger agreed between the parties. Together blockchain enables trust by minimizing the amount of trust required from any one member in the network.
Can blockchain replace ERP systems?
The short answer is No. Blockchain shines well when there are multiple parties involved and there is a lack of trust among them. Most ERP environments are within an enterprise, where trust is not an issue so blockchain isn’t a full replacement.
However, the scenario changes drastically when enterprise ERPs start to integrate with organizations (partners, vendors, customers) outside the trust boundary of their supply chain. The untrusted data coming in from the supply chain can damage supply chain visibility, inventory projections, and trade relations. Blockchain is known for its potential to unite a large supply chain network using a decentralized network. Instead of each party in a supply chain network having their own version of data, the blockchain ensures single source of truth across all participants.
Industry is emerging in such a way that ERPs and blockchain will work together to strengthen the integrity and efficiency of supply chains. Trusted blockchain data will feed into the enterprise-specific ERP system for greater business insights. Similarly, production data from the ERP system will enrich the blockchain with information needed for the supply chain ecosystem.
Where can blockchain be used for business?
The blockchain use cases for business are immense particularly with removing the overhead costs associated with maintaining trust known as trust tax. The blockchain use cases fundamentally provide three opportunity pillars:
Based on the above pillars, the following are business patterns where blockchain shines:
To learn more about Chainyard’s blockchain consulting services and executive workshops email – [email protected].
Over the past several years, enterprise blockchain for business has seen noticeable attention from organizations outside of the cryptocurrency community. Gartner predicts that the business value added by blockchain will surge to exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030. In a recent Gartner Press Release nearly 40% of those surveyed globally have blockchain solutions in production. The benefits of blockchain continue to intensify the interest in enterprise blockchain for business. Savvy business owners can earn a share of the fortunes associated with these trends by following our top six enterprise blockchain adoption guiding principles.
People are learning that blockchain is changing the rules, and they need to get involved. As the technology matures, the blockchain platforms are becoming more reliable with improved security, privacy, and scalability. However, there are still more growing pains to overcome. To help address difficulties with communication and interoperability, InterWork Alliance was recently launched by an impressive group of organizations to standardize the interchange of tokenized value across use cases and networks. The establishment of decentralized governance is another challenge for enterprise blockchain consortiums, which are experimenting with various models to address the problem. Furthermore, laws throughout the world impacting blockchain deployments are inconsistent and in flux. According to the World Economic Forum, regulatory changes represent by far the most significant hurdle for blockchain innovators, as these changes are forcing early adopters to rework their implementations.
Experienced blockchain consulting companies, such as Chainyard, have successfully navigated through the complex journey of blockchain for business adoption and have deployed several solutions into production providing blockchain benefits to dozens of clients. Trust Your Supplier from IBM and Chainyard is one such example; It provides a trusted digital passport for suppliers to work with buyers in the network. The network already has more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies as buyers, numerous verifiers, many business networks providers, and thousands of suppliers.
To avoid the need for redesigning their blockchain solutions, and to overcome the numerous challenges and realize the benefits of blockchain, enterprise blockchain for business adopters can follow these top six guiding principles:
It is highly anticipated that blockchain technology will be a part of most businesses in the next five years. Some pioneering companies will be leaders, creating their own networks, and starting consortiums. Many more will be followers. Enterprises cannot afford to ignore this shift in business models due to distributed ledger technology. There is a myriad of decisions required of enterprises to navigate the fast-changing technology, and leveraging these guiding principles will facilitate a smooth journey.
To learn more about Chainyard’s consulting services and executive workshops, email – [email protected].
Gary Storr, Vice President of Commercial Solutions at Chainyard, presents a webinar to Hyperledger on Trust Your Supplier.
The original article can be found at https://www.hyperledger.org/learn/webinars/hyperledger-member-webinar-supplier-digital-passport-using-trust-your-supplier
This article was originally published on Silicon Angle
As the world becomes more digital as the coronavirus pandemic forces many to work remotely, companies and individuals need to share more and more data. This sharing can be more efficient if the data and the sources that provide it are confirmed, verified and trusted.
That’s why computing giant IBM Corp. is betting on blockchain as a solution for now –and for the future.
“Blockchain brings a platform for trusted data exchange while preserving privacy,” said Jerry Cuomo (pictured), vice president of blockchain technology at IBM Corp. and an IBM fellow. “And that provides a foundation to do some amazing things in this time of crisis.”
Cuomo spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think Digital Event Experience. They discussed the importance of blockchain in the digital world, as well as some applications of the technology during the coronavirus pandemic. (* Disclosure below.)
IBM was one of the first blockchain providers and has more than 1,000 customers now using its IBM Blockchain Platform, which is powered by The Linux Foundation’s open-source Hyperledger Fabric. Among these users, more than 100 have created production networks, according to Cuomo.
“It’s been great to see some of the proprietors of those networks now repurpose the network’s towards hastening the relief of the COVID,” he said.
One of the applications of blockchain during the pandemic has been to combat supply shortages. Because of the lockdown caused by the crisis, some suppliers were left without key goods, and buyers realized the need to expand the network of providers of these products very quickly. However, current laws and regulations can cause a new supplier’s integration into the network to take many weeks.
“In IBM, for example, we have over 20,000 suppliers to our business, and it takes 30 to 40 days to validate and verify one of those suppliers,” Cuomo said. “We don’t have 30 to 45 days … think about a healthcare company or a food company.”
To shorten this process, IBM used the Trust Your Supplier blockchain-based identity platform built by Chainyard Supplier Management Inc.
“If they [suppliers] are part of the Trust Your Supplier network, and they’ve already onboarded to IBM, they’re well on their way to being visible to all of these other buyers that are part of the IBM network,” Cuomo explained. “And instead of taking 40 days, maybe it only takes five days.”
Another blockchain use case focuses on aggregating valid data to help authorities fight the pandemic. The idea is to tackle one of the main problems that scientists and researchers face when trying to map and contain the crisis, which is the lack of integration of verified data sources that can be used with confidence.
To help solve this problem, the IBM Blockchain team joined the MiPasa project, from enterprise-grade blockchain platform Hacera, in creating a verified data hub.
“With MiPasa being a data hub for verified information related to the coronavirus, [it is] really laying a foundation now for a new class of application that can mash up information to create new insights,” Cuomo explained. “Perhaps applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to really look not just at any one of those data sources, but now to look across data sources and start to make some informed decision.”
A third application of blockchain in this pandemic is for digital identity verification. “You’re working remotely; you’re using tools like Zoom; there’s a huge spike in calls and online requests from telehealth or government benefit programs,” Cuomo said. “So, this is all happening and everything behind the scenes is: ‘Is this user who they say they are?’”
The Verified.Me solution by SecureKey Technologies Inc., which runs on IBM Blockchain, aims to facilitate identity verification. It allows users, through a mobile application, to invite institutions to represent and verify them. Users control their own information and the terms and conditions under which it will be used.
“The provider doesn’t know who the requester is, requester doesn’t know who the provider is — that is double blind. And then the network provider doesn’t know either,” Cuomo explained. “But somehow trust is formed, and that’s the magic of blockchain, allowing that to happen.”
This article was originally published on due.com and republished on NASDAQ
To everyone’s great frustration, the course of COVID-19 and its enduring economic impacts look unpredictable. As companies rush to aid the COVID-19 response or fight to keep their doors open, they require trust in suppliers and partners and transparency into supply chains and contractual obligations. Luckily, blockchain excels on both fronts.
The article suggests three strategies to effectively add blockchain to your own recovery effort.
