Similarly to other major companies, Walmart has been looking at blockchain for quite some time now. In fact, the retail giant has recently filed for a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for what it calls the “Smart Package” system, which would — guess — rely on the “blockchain magic” to improve operations across the board.
The system is designed to track things like package contents, environmental conditions, location, and other details, according to Fintech Finance. It would work with a special device that would be used in new technologies such as autonomous vehicles and unmanned drones.
In such a setup, blockchain would store “key addresses along the chain,” including “seller private key address, a courier private key address, and a buyer private key address.”
The filing goes on to add that Walmart will design a tool to benefit from “greater security in the shipping packaging that the items are shipped in.” It, however, adds that existing tracking instruments do not yet provide “such desired functionality.”
Work with IBM
In addition to the “Smart Package” system, Walmart is also working with IBM on a blockchain project that would identify and remove recalled foods from its products list.
The company’s current system requires days to search and discover the origin of a product. It involves alerting the Walmart IT department to get to the root of the problem, which includes the analysis of various databases and servers to find the origin, vendor, time of shipment, and other details.
In contrast, with a blockchain-based system – Walmart and its partners would be able to more easily verify and identify any information on any product on the ledger. And more importantly, such system would be more secure with blockchain technology protecting the underlying data.
“With Blockchain, you can do strategic removals, and let consumers and companies have confidence. We believe that enhanced traceability is good for other aspects of the food systems,” Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety at Walmart, said at the time when the deal with IBM was announced. “We hope you could capture other important attributes that would inform decisions around food flows, and even get more efficient at it.”
IBM, which is well vested in decentralized computing, has a lot to gain from this deal, too. With Walmart signing-up to use its technology, the Big Blue got its biggest blockchain customer, ever.