The American retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is planning to implement blockchain for managing drones that deliver goods. This was stated in a company’s patent application recently filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In the document, Walmart describes a system that links drones to each other.
For example, after the drone with the goods arrives to another company's drone, the devices will exchange signals to identify each other. If the identification process passes successfully, the first drone will transfer the cargo to the second. The data used by the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) will be placed into a blockchain database. It is planned that the signals between drones can be transmitted in various ways, including QR-codes or ultrasound. Also, it is possible to integrate smart contracts into the system.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- The use of drones in the delivery of goods should make the process quick and independent from the human factor. But, as they say in the patent application, to make consumers confident it is necessary to develop a system for identifying the machines. All information will be available in the distributed ledger and users will be able to track the movement of their package in real time.
- Walmart is actively introducing distributed ledger technology. In recent months, the corporation has filed several applications for various blockchain systems, for example, a delivery management system and a package tracking system. The company has also won a patent application for “Obtaining a medical record stored on a blockchain from a wearable device”.