Amazon gets a patent for supply chain tracking with blockchain
Amazon, the largest online retailer, has patented a system based on distributed registry technology (DLT) to authenticate consumer products.
Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Registration Office (USPTO) approved an application filed by Amazon almost three years ago entitled “DLT-based certification”. The application describes a blockchain-based system to convey “digital trust from the point of production and throughout the supply chain”.
The system collects data from distributors, manufacturers and shippers as part of an “open infrastructure” that enables the distribution of information about the origin of a product in information warehouses.
The system provides customers with transparent information about the origin of the product they have purchased. In its application description, Amazon ridiculed “the proliferation of systems and databases that often lack transparency, consistency, integrity or security”. Such systems, in the company’s view, can undermine trust.
In addition, such “disparate” technologies do not cover the global supply chain. The company argues that, despite existing technical shortcomings, distributed systems offer a convincing solution to supply chain tracing problems.
DLT can protect data from change, eliminate common system failure points and avoid the problems that are common to centralized systems. Amazon’s proposal also states that Hyperledger may be one of the forms of DLT used to implement the proposed system.
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