By
Steve Muchoki
December 20th, 2023
Walmart’s Canadian arm has announced a new blockchain initiative. The network manages and synchronizes all the data related to the supply chain and logistics in real time.
According to a November 14, 2019 press release, Walmart Canada is now embracing the use of blockchain as they will be launching its use for freight tracking and payment info management.
And such an initiative is not surprising. Besides cryptocurrency, it’s most famous offering, taking over the world, there has also been the talk of blockchain becoming the next big technology used across various industries and this is for good reason. Blockchain, by its design, creates an irrefutable ledger of all transactions that are tracked across it and this has made its particularly favored within industries that require a lot of tracking such as supply chain, payroll management and so on.
Even universities across the globe have started issuing their degrees via blockchain in a means to combat certificate fraud as everything recorded on the blockchain can never be removed and can always be made reference to with ease.
Bringing Blockchain to Walmart
This new initiative was developed in conjunction with DLT Labs and allows customers to track their orders, manage their payments and verify transactions. This new development allegedly can also fit into a business’ legacy system and help them coordinate the various aspects, as in the case of Walmart, it “manages, integrates and synchronizes all the supply chain and logistics data in real-time, aggregating the data between Walmart Canada and its fleet of third-party trucks on a shared ledger.”
This is particularly beneficial for them because their business model has to do with large amounts of inventory and blockchain gives them the chance to keep all of it tracked in a single place across various actors and locations with ease.
“This new dynamic and interactive blockchain technology platform is creating complete transparency between Walmart Canada and all of our carrier partners. Blockchain is enabling a material advance in our smart transportation network, with expedited payments, extensive cost savings and other benefits among our supply chain. Moreover, this degree of improved efficiency represents a powerful platform for us to continue to reduce our environmental footprint and continue our leadership in environmental sustainability,” said John Bayliss, senior vice-president of logistics and supply chain at Walmart Canada.
This is not the first time that Walmart as a corporation is embracing blockchain as in 2018, they launched an initiative that would help in the tracking of fresh produce to prevent E. coli in the United States. It was also applied in August 2019 to some of their Sam’s Club locations in order to track their shipment of shrimp which came from India. Also, superstores such as Carrefour have also been implementing blockchain into some of their products by giving consumers the ability to trace the product to its point of origin and this has proven particularly popular for those who have dietary restrictions and so on.