Blockchain technology has already begun to improve many different facets of our lives. From the innovative digital currency of Bitcoin, to the way in which the smart functionality of blockchain and the decentralized ledger could benefit almost all sectors.
One such sector that is seeing a greater uptake of blockchain technology is the food and drink industry. A strong benefit of blockchain is the traceability that the functionality affords. This has already been present in the food and drink industry, especially when it comes to supply chain management and the use of smart contracts.
But while the food industry may already benefit from smart contracts, could it also benefit from cryptocurrency?
Blockchain to enhance food industry
Blockchain consortium FoodLogiQ argues that the future of food will be in blockchain. The use in this context is to improve food safety and enhance traceability across the food supply chain. The unique blockchain features mean that shipments can be tracked better. The consortium will begin looking at how exactly blockchain could be useful in a practical way for the food and drink industry.
FoodLogicQ CEO Jamie Duke claims that the inaugural meeting of the consortium will “develop our roadmap of short- and long-term goals and determine how we will use the data we collect”.
Participants include major producer Smithfield Foods. In addition to this, dexFreight has just shipped 5,320 lb of frozen food using blockchain smart contracts. The protocols and machine learning in place mean that the technology offers a smoother, cheaper, and faster way of doing things in a more secure setting.
Cryptocurrency and the food industry
Bitcoin isn’t the only player in the daily growth of cryptocurrency. There’s Ethereum and Ripple following in its footsteps as being major players in the industry – and the lesser known coins are showing the prowess as options for payment. Dogecoin has shown resilience in tough economic times, and its value has grown tremendously, much like Bitcoin’s seemed to do when it first launched, showing that the market is growing. Traders may be looking into how to buy dogecoin and how the cryptocurrency market will open up.
Ripple has already partnered with Santander as a viable replacement for SWIFT payments in cross-border finances. So if cryptocurrency is growing at such a rate and the blockchain functionality is already proving itself in the food industry, why hasn’t the industry taken up cryptocurrency as a payment option yet?
The answer is likely due to the systems in place already and how difficult it is to have business leaders budge on such ingrained processes. As blockchain and cryptocurrency continue to prove themselves, there may be a future for food and drink purchased in mainstream ways through cryptocurrency.
It’s not that vendors aren’t offering cryptocurrency as an option to purchase things, it’s that the mainstream isn’t paying with crypto. A transition such as this could only happen if it happens simultaneously. It should work as a pull/push process whereby businesses offer what the public are asking for. Until greater buzz can surround cryptocurrency, it still won’t be as adopted by vendors.
