Towards the end of last month, Walmart announced that it was partnering with VeChain to develop the “Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform.” The platform is intended to enhance the traceability of products such as rice, fresh meat, and mushrooms, among others.
According to reports:
“By scanning the desired products, customers can acquire detailed information, including the source of the scanned products and geographic location received by Walmart, logistics process, product inspection report, and many more data points. Data collection and data availability are to be continually added to the scale of the platform and its use of blockchain technology.”
From Vechain To A Physical Warehouse
Apart from partnering with VeChain, Walmart is taking food safety to another level by investing heavily into logistics; Walmart will therefore invest $1 billion in China logistics.
As per SupplyChainDive, a news outlet:
“[Walmart’s] 1 million-square-foot warehouse in Dongguan, China, is part of 8 billion yuan ($1.16 billion) Walmart plans to invest in logistics in China. The facility is outfitted for fresh, frozen, and ambient storage.”
Notably, another warehouse built by Walmart in Huanan, China, opened in March this year and is reportedly serving over 100 stores “in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions and can ship up to 165,000 boxes per day.”
However, Walmart’s current investment of approximately more than $1 billion is the heaviest since it entered the Chinese market more than 20 years ago. From the onset, Walmart is banking on the competitive Chinese grocery market with shoppers turning to online stores for their grocery.
To cater to the demand, Walmart joined hands with JD.com three years ago to improve food delivery in China. As per the agreement between the two leading stores, Walmart would handle the back-end of orders made on JD.com’s front-end.
The news outlet noted that:
“Walmart emphasized the technology in the new facilities that will ensure the different storage temperatures remain constant.”
Although the current investment is Walmart’s most significant, the store seeks to build roughly over 10 more warehouses in a span of 10 to 20 years to serve the burgeoning grocery market in China.
Warehouse, Blockchain, Crypto
Notably, Walmart’s investment in logistics has overflown into blockchain, and the crypto community is optimistic this will bring good tidings. For instance, cpres10, a Redditor, commented:
“This is awesome for crypto. They are using the blockchain as their backbone. No more dept. etc. All email/checks/deposits/ everything a comp does is in blockchain. Now add money to that backbone!”
More stores are turning to blockchain for product verification. For example, Rakuten, one of the leading e-commerce stores in Japan, partnered with Techrock to curb counterfeits.
Walmart Is Not Alone
Ye Jianyou, Rakuten’s vice senior manager, said that:
“Together with Techrock, we can further develop blockchain traceability and work towards cross-ecosystem integration of our platforms’ loyalty points.”
As these e-commerce giants invest in blockchain technology for product tracing solutions, the crypto community hopes that “some of that money will flow into crypto.”
