The World Economic Forum launches a blockchain project

The World Economic Forum launches a project involving the use of the blockchain in the supply chain.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is the non-profit foundation that organises the famous winter forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss the most urgent economic/financial issues that the world is facing, including those relating to health and the environment. 

According to a worldwide survey conducted by the WEF itself, 51% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their organisation would need to adopt blockchain technology to remain competitive. 

The two main advantages identified were full traceability and data integrity, with most of the industries surveyed benefiting from the use of smart contracts and automation made possible by blockchain technology. 

As a result, the World Economic Forum has launched this project together with the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation, called “Blockchain Value Framework” and an integral part of the “Building Value with Blockchain Technology” whitepaper aiming to help these same organisations to identify the value of blockchain technology and to use it in their businesses.  

The Blockchain Value Framework was co-designed with Accenture and is the second in a series of whitepapers designed to help organisations better understand how to concretely take advantage of blockchain-based technologies. 

The Head of Blockchain of the WEF, Sheila Warren, said: 

“In our last paper, we stressed that blockchain deployment is not the end goal. We wanted to get beyond the hype. This new framework is for those business leaders that have figured out blockchain is the right solution for a specific problem, but don’t know what to do next”.

Accenture’s Managing Director and Global Blockchain Lead, David Treat, added: 

“Organizations need to make business decisions and investments with confidence and that requires proof of the value-add and an analysis of why, or why not, they should consider something new. Through this new framework, we aim to educate businesses and challenge them to rethink their current business models, relationships between ecosystem partners, customers and their investments in technology. The path to blockchain adoption starts here with evaluating the technical and strategic priorities and aligning them with investments in innovation”.

This framework starts with some questions about the role that the blockchain could have in the various use cases and the effects that could be achieved. This allows for the assessment of potential critical points and the identification of areas of opportunity without having to focus on the technology. 

The roadmap can also help organisations move from assessing the current situation to future blockchain opportunities, so as to identify where value will be created, for example through cost savings, increased revenue or improved customer experience.