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Description
The purpose of this thesis research project is to explore blockchain technology and its present and future applications within supply chain management. Emerging blockchain technologies, both public and private, are already showing great promise for a number of applications in and outside supply chain management. Our sole focus is to understand the fundamentals of blockchain, smart contracts, current applications in supply chain, and the future possibilities for blockchain to shape global supply chains. Many have theorized about how private blockchains can be implemented and used; however, there is little research to date that has collected and explored the actual use cases in industry today. The mission of this research paper is to separate theory from the current state of the technology and provide a clearer understanding of where the technology is headed in the near future. We aim to produce a work that will provide a comprehensive description and commentary on current use cases for the education of students and industry professionals alike. With any new technological developments, terminology and technicalities can be paralyzing, and this is particularly true for blockchain technology. For this project, our goal was to create a document that cuts through the complexities and allows a non-technical audience to gain a strong foundational understanding of blockchain's potential and current limitations within supply chains. Provided this, some highly technical concepts and implementation details will not be explored due to the complexity and minimal understanding even amongst industry experts. As future supply chain professionals, we are motivated to further our understanding of blockchain technologies and the potential for this technology to shape the future of supply chain management.
ContributorsBecker, Logan (Co-author) / Falco, Alexander (Co-author) / Murphy, Thomas Brian (Co-author) / Taylor, Todd (Thesis director) / Wiedmer, Robert (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The purpose of this research paper is to examine the fundamentals of blockchain technology and how the application of blockchain could serve as a future platform for identity. An identity is used, as the name suggests, to identify who or what an entity is. Although seen as a trivial concept, defining what truly makes up an identity can become quite difficult. Is an identity the thoughts, feelings, or tendencies of a person? Are more tangible assets like a Social Security card, birth certificate, or passport a person’s identity? Can nonhuman entities like businesses or organizations possess an identity? The true definition of an identity may never be known; however, it is certain that several pieces of identifying data lay scattered across multiple databases. Often a person may not have control or even access to these third-party databases that hold their information. Moreover, what information, for how long, and in what way the data is being used may be unclear. Blockchain provides a solution to the identity problem by providing a visible, secure single source of truth. On a blockchain platform, a person would no longer have to trust the goodwill of third parties to secure their data or be uncertain about how the data is being used. Instead, a user could secure their own data and only permission those deemed necessary. The signal immutable ledger would serve to replace current tangible identities as a means to verify yourself in a digital age.
ContributorsRuggaard, Kyle Russell (Author) / Taylor, Todd (Thesis director) / Collins, Gregory (Committee member) / Thunderbird School of Global Management (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05