FedEx highlights global customs clearance as strong blockchain use case

Last year the Chairman and founder of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith, said that blockchain has “big, big implications in supply chain, transportation, and logistics.” So the question is what is FedEx working on? Ledger Insights spoke to Dale Chrystie, FedEx Business Fellow, who was recently elected as the first chair of Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) Standards Council. Chrystie highlighted two areas of interest to FedEx, authenticity and peer-to-peer networking. The latter would involve improving communications between business partners for better and more efficient customer service. Although the technology needs to mature for peer-to-peer networking, Chrystie believes that “it’s going to be very disruptive to a lot of processes.”

The demand for authenticity

Traceability is a popular blockchain application. “We have a track and trace that is second to none in the world,” said Chrystie. “Blockchain doesn’t really help us much because, as I would say, ‘We know where your package is.’ However, the provenance, the authenticity of this is a layer that sits on top of that, and where those two come together is where we’re focusing our efforts.”

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