The analysts say that over the next 4 years, the market for blockchain-related products and services will reach ~$14 billion. Whether that’s true is anyone’s guess, but one thing’s for sure, demand for the technology is skyrocketing. Multiple surveys indicate that more than half of the Fortune 500 are currently active in their technical investigations. And the largest data centers are projecting that all-things-blockchain-related will be their top capacity consumer for years to come.  

No doubt, there will be all kinds of blockchain applications that find their way into the market, but the supply chain management (SCM) solution space seems particularly ripe for their disruptions. Managing supplier performance and matters of compliance across increasingly vast and dynamic networks represent just a subset of the challenges that the current crop of tools don't handle well. However, and for simplicity, "blockchain-enabled versions" of the approaches supported by these same technologies would, in many cases, directly address their current deficits.