A few weeks ago in the March 12, 2018 edition of Bloomsberg Businessweek Paul Ford wrote an article entitled ” The Blockchain is a Mind Virus”. In writing this, he was pointing about how trendy items in the business world take a life of their own.
In between the lines of his article, I felt there was actually some praise for trendy items as it got people to think and do action. But it was mind virus because it kept people from looking at less costly and maybe better alternatives to do the same thing.
Blockchain has obvious attributes for handling the complexity of international shipments and supply chain visibility. Some people think this will be the end of the middle man broker operations. I don’t see that happening, but their role will change. Most shippers will not be able to justify developing the software in house, so there will be a need for a middle man to be the supplier of software. Just because something is visible to national customs operations those not mean something can’t go wrong and that middle man will be needed for theire expertise to resolve the issue.
Certainly blockchain software has many advantages, but it not only way to accomplish desired results. So let blockchain motivate to look for a better way to do things, but never limit your search to that.