VeChain (VET), Mastercard and Alipay will all join Australia’s supply chain consortium, the APAC Provenance Council, as revealed by a tweet posted by VeChain's Head of Business Development, Sarah Nabaa, on May 4. The consortium will focus on supply chain tracking and enabling pilot programmes in the Asia Pacific region.
This includes milestone payments i.e. payments that only occur when certain milestones are reached. As an example, if a shipment reaches a destination, a portion of the payment is paid then, and the rest as the shipment reaches various other milestones along the supply chain.
The products can either be tracked publicly on VeChain’s blockchain or privately on Mastercard’s Provenance blockchain. Specific products that will be tracked include food, wine and produce.
VeChain CEO Sunny Lu spoke of how this could benefit economies during the COVID-19 pandemic,
The implementation of blockchain technology certainly contributes to buffering the immediate economic impacts of the pandemic for enterprises, and will help improve productivity by unleashing more resources and growth opportunities.
Blockchain Australia CEO Nicholas Giurietto was also expectant of the effort, saying that it is a great step forward,
The National Blockchain Roadmap identified agricultural supply chains as a key area where blockchain and adjacent technologies can transform our national capability. The formation of the APAC Provenance Council is a great step forward that will allow us to move forward with projects that will enhance the transparency, efficiency and management of agricultural and other supply chains.
Australia Sees Increased Blockchain Development
Australia has released a National Blockchain Roadmap, which describes the government’s agenda and path forward concerning the implementation of the technology. Having received $100,000 in funding, the initiative will focus on “regulation, skills and capacity building, innovation, investment, and international competitiveness and collaboration.”
The Liberal National Government has also granted overt $1 million towards blockchain development, standardization and for payments infrastructure.
Energy-focused blockchain project Power Ledger (POWR) has revealed that it has implemented an energy savings and trading service in the city of Inglewood. This allows homeowners to trade excess energy with others on the grid and will enable 100% clean energy on the grid.
