On 14 June Work Package 5 of the TITAN Project presented their second webinar wherein Kirsten Coppoolse the COO of Open Food Chain and Nour-El-Intessar Rebahi from INRAE presented Blockchain and Hasgraph with examples of how these technologies can be applied to agro-food supply chains.
Kirsten presented Blockchain, she explained that a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks that are linked together using cryptography. The data attached to a block is fixed and cannot be altered. Corrections will have to be added as a separate block. In the agri-food arena it is often used to make a certain claim, for instance: organic or forced labour free. She presented previous and current projects as use cases. Guests were interested in how long data will be kept and Kirsten explained, that it is part of the design decisions and will differ according to the supply chain’s needs.
Nour on the other hand, presented Hashgraph. She explained that Hashgraph uses a gossip protocol to send transactions through a graph. It is possible to add and delete actors providing flexibility for highly changeable supply chains. She presented a theoretical use case because this technology has not yet been widely adopted in the agro-food industry.
Both technologies have their advantages and disadvantages and therefore it is up to each supply chain to decide which technology matches their needs. These approaches can also be used in conjunction with each other if they are designed with the other parties in mind.
A recording of the webinar was made and could be made available on request. Any further questions can be directed at Pascal Neveu and Bernadette Durand at INRAe.
