Breaking down blockchain barriers

This morning at the GFSI 2019 Conference, in front of an audience packed by some of the world’s top brands and retailers, Greenfence announced its journey to democratise blockchain. “For blockchain-based farm to fork traceability and transparency to work, the technology must be available for use by the masses,” said Mitch Chait founder and CEO of Greenfence.

In less than 15 mins, the audience – who included some of the world’s best-known brands and organisations – were shown how they can define and deploy an industrial grade enterprise blockchain solution without the help of middlemen (e.g. IT professionals and consultants). Using all the steps to grow, harvest, pack and ship ingredients to processors, who in turn use those ingredients to produce and package pints of roasted corn Salsa, the audience was shown how they could basically build their supply chain themselves and then deploy it live on the blockchain in a matter of minutes.

In an interactive section of the presentation, the audience was invited to participate, playing the roles as the farmer, retailer and shopper and simply scan QR codes to interact with the blockchain they just created and actually see the journey of each ingredient and ultimately the jar of Salsa from farm to fork; demonstrating how simple it is to implement a recall in seconds, or even issue coupons to customers via the Smart Promo app.

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion, with Anita Scholte Op Reimer, VP Quality Assurance & Sustainability at Koninkluke Ahold Delhaize N.V and Mark Overland, Director of Global Certification from Cargill sharing their views on the new solution.  “It’s the first time I have seen it and it is very impressive,” said Op Reimer, who has recently led a blockchain initiative at Ahold around their orange juice supply chain.  “I’ve never seen anything like this; it certainly is blockchain made easy!  As a retailer, we always think about the customer; food should be safe, healthy, and nutritious. Customers want to know more about the origin and ingredients of the products they buy. From what I saw this morning, everything is in there and it is very intuitive and easy to use.”  Mark Overland said, “We’ve worked with Greenfence for about three years; I would say the ‘what’ that Greenfence does is pretty remarkable with the things that they have been able to break ground on.” 

“This morning, we feel that we have sparked an evolution to democratise blockchain,” said Mitch Chait.  “We wanted to be very specific in terms of putting it into the hands of the actual users.”

Chait went on to explain that for blockchain to achieve mass adoption across global supply chains, everyone along the supply chain has to be able to configure, manage, and use it, as well as afford it.

“You don’t need middle men or consultants to deliver blockchain,” summarised Chait.  “Through this ground-breaking approach, we can provide local and global citizens the tools to track and trade across highly complex and fragmented supply chains with the efficacy and security of blockchain.”