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Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

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Re: Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

#21

Post by muthdra »

imhoguy wrote: post #15
wyldfire wrote: post #8

Decentralized? No, it's "IBM Food Trust". So how is this any better or different from hosting a database on IBM's server? Secured by a PoW? Doubt it. Here's the closest I could find to technical info: > IBM Food Trust's blockchain solution, on the other hand, is permissioned so invited members know exactly with whom they are transacting, similar to what happens between business partners today. Participants also deter…

Sounds like another buzzword charged write-once database.

"buzzword charged" is a great expression.

Re: Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

#25

Post by dsr_ »

s_kilk wrote: post #4

Will this idiotic mind-virus never die?

Of course it will. Fads come and go. Remember when everything was going to be CORBA? Or when all user interfaces were done in Flash?

And right now AI/ML is taking over from blockchain, and lots of it will be written by people who don't know what a linear regression is and once heard of p-hacking but couldn't make up an example of it.

Re: Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

#26

Post by lostmyoldone »

Ua2Reemo wrote: post #7

What does a blockchain offer in this case that submitting a line to some sort of B2B logging API where the logs are made public (like certificate transparency) doesn't?

Maybe I'm overly pessimistic, but isn't it quite likely that it will primarily be used as leverage against suppliers?

If the suppliers themselves enter every piece of information into what is essentially a living contract, any error or omission could be considered a breach of contract and can be leveraged.

If it was only about food safety and increased sales because of increased trust the solution you propose, maybe with some kind of basic digital signatures, would be fine, and probably much cheaper.

From what I've heard, Walmart seems to like moneh very much, hence doing something a more expensive way is likely to be intended to increase their bottom line in more ways than one.

Re: Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

#27

Post by SkyPuncher »

code4tee wrote: post #18

IBM is quietly brushing its Watson mess under the carpet and now they’re trying to focus on blockchain. However this is just as substanceless and full of marketing fluff as Watson was. There’s nothing being done here that couldn’t or shouldn’t just be handled with a traditional database. Having IBM “run it” also sort of defeats the whole decentralized aspect of blockchain technologies. You don’t need “blockchain” to…

Watching there "Blockchain" commercial was infuriating to me. I saw absolutely no way that the "Blockchain" was solving any meaningful problem. Unless each plant can be uniquely and irrevocably tagged from the time it's planted to the time it's in my bowl, this whole thing is useless.

Re: Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

#28

Post by tomp »

Ua2Reemo wrote: post #7

What does a blockchain offer in this case that submitting a line to some sort of B2B logging API where the logs are made public (like certificate transparency) doesn't?

I don't get that either. Absent proof-of-work (which is however terribly energetically wasteful), blockchain is just a public GIT repository where every commit is signed, no?

Re: Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

#29

Post by bitL »

itissid wrote: post #9

Can't one solve the problem of tracking food contamination with a simple key value store that tracks supplier id and the food batch information? Whats the advantage of using blockchain here?

It's about tracking all steps, all parts that were used, whether all companies involved in the processing chain had appropriate ISO certificates, if sourcing didn't originate from sanctioned countries or countries with bad working practices etc. in order to "select" ones that fulfill given criteria, possibly marketing them in multiple layers with certificates (this one is pure Swiss, cows were fed grass 100% from Glarus canton, operated 100% German machinery, food assembled by a Dutch factory implementing ISO blahblah, so here you pay 175% price; or you can get a budget version containing traces of ground fingers of children from Uganda forced to work in a processing factory with high contamination of environment etc.)

Re: Walmart Requires Lettuce, Spinach Suppliers to Join Blockchain

#30

Post by LambdaComplex »

muthdra wrote: post #23

(Image) Do I need a blockchain? https://i1.wp.com/potdar.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ima...

Eh, I think it's more like "Do you need a decentralized write-once database where you trust none of the writers? Then yes. Otherwise, no."
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