Target to use blockchain technology to track supply chain

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One of the largest retailers in the U.S. has decided that blockchain based technology is the perfect way for them to be able to properly track their supply chain. According to a blog post from the vice president of architecture for the Target Corporation, the company has been using this technology since 2018 as part of a pilot program.

According to Target’s blog, they had open sourced the project using blockchain as the solution to create the suppliers’ certification, which is dubbed ConsenSource. They write that ConsenSource is the perfect supply chain management solution and is being used in conjunction with the supply chain framework project known as the Hyperledger Grid. In fact, Target has pledged to provide their support for the Hyperledger Grid project, something that has been used with food giant Cargill.

While the test phase has shown some promise, Target is not done with the framework of this project whatsoever. They are now looking for a blockchain engineer and systems developer, a position that is listed on the company’s career page. The role of the new engineer will be to continue to support and amend the ConsenSource as well as add to the development of Hyperledger Grid, according to the job posting.

In the corporate posting related to the introduction of the blockchain technology, Vice President Joel Crabb explained that the company is happy to be working in conjunction with other projects to further the progress of their supply chain technology. “I’m proud that Target will support the Hyperledger Grid project, and that we’re committing dedicated engineering resources to build out components in the Grid architecture.”

Several companies across the globe have been using blockchain technology as a means to track their supply chain. In June, French retailer Carrefour SA had issued a statement that they were using this technology to track a wide host of their products. This is one such example of a company using this technology, but there are others.

Target has kept a stealth profile in blockchain initiatives, but had hired Aarthi Srinivasan to help get the project underway. He had worked at both IBM and JPMorgan.

Emily Fisher, who is a spokesperson at the Linux Foundation also explained that “Target has made code contributions but is not a member of Hyperledger.”

Because the project is open source, it has become one of the most frequently reviewed and adjusted programming codes on the market today. There have been more than 46 contributors and over 5000 commits on GitHub to the project already.