The blockchain hype cycle is over. What remains after the crash is more interesting than what came before: real enterprise adoption of distributed ledger technology for problems that genuinely benefit from it.
Here are the use cases that have proven out in production across our clients.
Supply chain provenance. A distributed ledger that records every handoff in a supply chain — from raw material to retail shelf — provides an immutable audit trail that neither the buyer nor seller can alter. For food safety recalls alone, this capability is worth billions.
Trade finance. Letters of credit, bills of lading, and documentary collections are still largely paper-based processes. Smart contracts can automate the conditional release of funds when goods are verified at the destination, eliminating weeks of manual reconciliation.
Digital credentials. Universities, professional bodies, and governments are issuing verifiable credentials on-chain. The credential cannot be forged, can be verified instantly by anyone, and is owned by the credential holder rather than the issuing institution.
Carbon credits. The voluntary carbon market is plagued by double-counting and fraud. Tokenising carbon credits on a public ledger makes each credit unique, traceable from issuance to retirement, and publicly auditable.
The thread connecting these use cases: blockchain adds value when multiple untrusting parties need to share a single source of truth without a central intermediary they all trust.
