IBM, Walmart, and Tsinghua University will be forming a joint venture to use blockchain technology to track Chinese food products. The merger aims to promote food safety in the country.
Blockchain technology powers the bitcoin and enables data sharing across a network. It is popular worldwide because it is an effective platform to use for recording and keeping track of assets.
With the use of blockchain technology, Chinese food products such as meat and vegetables can be monitored. Imported meat will also be tracked, with local distributors and consumers knowing where the products come from.
The use of the platform will help authorities ensure that food products consumed and sold come from legitimate sources and safe for public consumption.
IBM said that blockchain will be able to create access to multiple users without the data being altered.
"Advanced technology has reached into so many aspects of modern life but it has lagged in food traceability, and in particular in creating more secure food supply chains," said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president of industry platforms at IBM in New York.
A similar effort was done by many financial stakeholders in the U.S. They developed a blockchain platform that can be used by banks and financial institutions.
R3, a financial technology company, developed the platform and is now the biggest shared effort among institutions in New York.
"We want other banks and other parties to innovate with products that sit on top of the platform, but we don't want everyone to create their own platform . . . because we'll end up with lots of islands that can't talk to each other," said R3's chief engineer, James Carlyle.
He added, "If we have one platform with lots of products on top, then we get something that's more like the internet, where we still get innovation but we can still communicate with each other."