House Committee of Science, Space and Technology hosted "Leveraging Blockchain Technology to Improve Supply Chain Management and Combat Counterfeit Goods" hearing.
The event attracted field experts, such as Douglas Maughan, cyber security division director at Science and Technology Directorate’s; Michael White, head of global trade digitization at Maersk; Chris Rubio, vice president of global customs brokerage staff in UPS, and Robert Chiaviello, counsel for Nuby Law IPR.
Hearing key points:
- Organizations such as Department of Homeland Security are in need of “vendor-neutral guidance and best practices”, according to Douglas Maughan.
- He also noted that a very real concern in the current timeframe of blockchain technologies is the potential for the development of 'walled gardens' or closed technology platforms that do not support common standards for security, privacy, and data exchange. The government official added that his agency is currently working to tackle the standards issues.
- Douglas Maughan asserted that blockchain could not help with voting systems as it is probably not a place where technology could be used.
- The civil servant is sure that technology offers government the potential for “enhanced transparency and auditing of public service operations, greater supply chain visibility to combat the distribution of counterfeit products, and automation of paper-based processes to improve delivery of services to organizations and citizens.”
- Douglas Maughan thinks that the applications “are almost limitless and it's up to the departments or agencies as to how to address that."
- Michael White remarked that blockchain is especially suitable for shipping industry, because “you can enable the parties which have a right to see and have access to information and see that information has not been tampered with or modified in any way, shape or form."
- Chris Rubio said, that "by having the ability to track any product from the beginning of its journey through the supply chain, blockchain may provide a solution to unknown or unverified product origins."
Full version of hearing is available here:
By Ekaterina Ulyanova