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When people hear the word "blockchain", most often think of cryptocurrency as bitcoins. But blockchain experts say technology goes far beyond bitcoin and predicts it will be an important force in all sectors of the economy, including agriculture.
Blockchain is a hot topic in the world of technology right now. Many say that what the Internet has done for information and communication will do for data management: to allow the decentralization and democratization of data.
Basically, blockchain is a distribution accounting database that stores blocks of digital data with each block in the chain representing a transaction. There is no single central control or blockchain management and the data is shared publicly and continuously reconciled.
On November 14, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center hosted a forum "Blockchain: the digital future of agricultural product traceability" that examined how blockchain can be used to improve traceability and transparency in agriculture, improve safety food supply, strengthen supply chains and allow faster transfer of payments within a single virtual system.
Andy Kennedy, interim director of the Global Food Traceability Center Institute of Food Technologies, said that a key advantage of the blockchain for agriculture is better data management. Technology can help reduce costs and improve transparency in all sectors of the food chain.
"Optimize logistics: Improve food security with traceability and transparency, it can help to improve the use and yield with information that can be trusted and which growers can use," Kennedy told the forum.
Kennedy noted that the world's largest producers of raw materials are already gathering to use blockchain technology to reduce costs and increase the efficiency of the grain market. He said that commodity trading could become the sharing of peer-to-peer information and order fulfillment via blockchain.
"Do you really need the Merc (the Chicago Mercantile Exchange)? Do you really need people to do that trading? It could become commodity trading without commodity traders, you can exchange raw materials and have proof that you bought it, you have it covered, you moved him and went to the warehouse, all done from your desk, and his data you can trust, "said Kennedy
For trade in raw materials, Kennedy said that blockchain can remove the card used to perform operations and eliminate the need for third-party verification. Through the blockchain, all players can share information up and down the supply chain that will help farmers decide which crops should be planted.
It will allow the acquisition of data from many different sources and will allow farmers, processors, resellers and regulators to share aggregate information.
Kennedy said it's all about trust.
"The genesis of blockchain and bitcoin came out in 2008 with the collapse of the financial system.The need for reliable security arose, that's what generated blockchain and bitcoin.It is having currency without a bank, without a brokerage company, without a Government The idea of blockchain is to build trust from a computer, an algorithm, a mathematical proof.The idea is the consensus, the wisdom of the crowds ".
Mark Parzygnat, director of the blockchain program for IBM, pointed out that blockchain goes far beyond bitcoin and cryptocurrency. "Cryptocurrency is simply an application built on blockchain," he said.
"Blockchain is the basic technology that is actually fantastic for tracking data or resources.What you do with blockchain is just append.They are cryptographically linked from one block to another, so if you change something in the In practice, you break that ledger in. It must be repaired or notified as a bad actor and taken off the chain for future transactions, "he said.
"The real power of blockchain is decentralization: getting a democracy around those data that are actually built, used and shared, each one has a copy of this ledger," he said.
Each block in the chain is linked to the previous one, creating an irreversible and immutable chain. The blocks are linked together, preventing the modification of any block or the insertion of a block between existing blocks.
Through the blockchain, everyone involved can have the consensus that the transactions are real, accurate and good through algorithms. Parzygnat said that this must be proven before the transactions can be added to the ledger.
"This is absolutely the key here: get rid of the central bottleneck.You do not want anyone to control everything.That's where the power of the blockchain comes from and through this common understanding and consent to agree on all the transactions that are done when things get they meet.This is the power of the blockchain, "said Parzygnat.
