US Retailer Target Unveils Open Source Blockchain for Supply Chain Tracking

Published at: June 10, 2019

United States-based retail giant Target is creating an open source blockchain project for supply chain tracking, according to an official blog post from the company’s VP of architecture on April 22.

According to the post, Target ran a pilot test using blockchain technology to certify its paper products along the supply chain in 2018. The blockchain used in the test period was reportedly made open source on GitHub recently as “ConsenSource” — at least as far back as two months ago, judging by the repository’s update history.

According to the GitHub documentation, ConsenSource is built on blockchain platform Hyperledger Sawtooth, one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by the Linux Foundation.

The post also mentions that Target will support the Hyperledger Grid, a project initiated in large part by Cargill, one of the company’s main food suppliers. Before bringing the project to the Linux foundation with Intel, Cargill reportedly took the initiative in making a “supply chain middleware” to record transactions and other data.

The post’s author Joel Crabb comments on the company’s enthusiasm for keeping blockchain projects for supply chains open source, saying:

“... the largest obstacle to implementing a distributed ledger is getting multiple companies to agree on which data are stored in the blockchain and how the system will be operated and governed. To achieve this close interaction among corporate entities, many companies — including Target — see the most potential for enterprise blockchain initiatives as open source.”

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Cargill announced its investment in Hyperledger Grid on January 25. The goal of Hyperledger Grid is reportedly to streamline supply chain infrastructure with blockchain technology, addressing a number of issues for food retail such as traceability, food safety and trade settlement.

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Blockchain
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