An Australian bank successfully completes international shopping transactions using Ethereum-based tracking system.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced on Monday the completion of an international shipment which used blockchain technology in order to track goods along the entire supply chain. The multinational entity, one of the four largest banks in Australia, announced in a statement that around 37,000 pounds of almonds were shipped from Australia to Germany and tracked by using an Ethereum-based private platform, completely developed by the bank.
Chris Scougall, Managing Director of Industrials and Logistics in Client Coverage at CBA said,
“Our blockchain-enabled global trade platform experiment brought to life the idea of a modern global supply chain that is agile, efficient and transparent. We believe that blockchain can help our partners reduce the burden of administration on their businesses and enable them to deliver best-in-class services to their customers.”
The participating blockchain nodes included key members throughout the supply chain, such as agricultural producer Olam Orchards and logistics companies, as well as the port operator of the Port of Melbourne. The CBA commented that this blockchain-based system records the information from the containers and documents the financial transactions in a distributed network. Everyone involved could simultaneously view and track the shipment information in real-time. The information included the shipment status, temperature and humidity of the containers, as well as some other crucial information for the transaction.
“This provides everyone involved in the supply chain with a high level of transparency and efficiency in relation to the location, condition and authentication of the goods to be transported,”
said CBA in a statement.
Emma Roberts, manager of the supply chain of Olam Ochards, commented,
“Inefficiency can be very negative for our business. In this industry it is vital to look for emerging technologies to find ways to improve the supply chain and develop a more transparent and efficient platform.”
This initiative comes after a previous partnership with Wells Fargo to test-out blockchain ledger to track international shipments in real time.
CBA seems to be quite enthusiastic when looking at future blockchain adoption and other technological advances in general, with more than one billion dollars in investment going to various fintech development initiatives in 2017.
by Samuel Larreal
