THE BLOCKCHAIN ISSUE by Digit October 2018

The October 2018 issue of Digit magazine has carried informative articles on this DLT (Distributed Ledger Technologies) by Aditya Madanapalle, Abhijit Dey, Mithun Mohandas and Arnab Mukherjee. The very fact that "... An independent study by Deloitte showed that 92 percent of the blockchain projects initiated by individuals or organisations since 2016 have ended in failure" made my jaws drop. It is a remarkable to note that TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and NITI AAYOG have already started the usage of blockchain in Indian Government. NITI AAYOG is working on a platform called "IndiaChain".It is mentioned that Estonia has already implemented blockchain of health record of its citizens. This can be replicated in India for land record data, social welfare schemes, subsidies etc. NITI AAYOG has plans to put the entire pharmaceutical inventory in the country on the blockchain. The idea is to attach a unique identification number, along with a barcode, to every single pharmaceutical product, which will then be tracked at every point of distribution. Authentication of the product can be done through a smartphone application, which will be available to the consumer at the end. The information about the route that the medicines took to reach the consumer, will also be available through the app. Among other information is about NFTs (Non fungible tokens), CryptoKittes etc. The use of blockchain in SCM (Supply Chain Management) giving example of coffee growers to coffee mug can give rise to many similar ideas which can even reduce agriculture waste. The scope for new startups using blockchain technology is also discussed at length. At the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018, the director of China Academy of Information and communication and technology said that of the 80 thousands blockchain projects that were launched, only 8% are active. So 92% of all blockchain projects have failed and the average lifespan for these projects is 1.22 years. ...There will arise a DLT from the ashes of blockchain which might just become the next big thing...