An Analysis of Blockchain Adoption in Supply Chains Between 2010 and 2020

TL;DR

This paper maps the evolution of blockchain technology in supply chains from 2010 to 2020, highlighting trends, sector focus, and project success rates across different blockchain platforms.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of 271 supply chain blockchain projects, revealing market trends, platform shifts, and success metrics over a decade.

Findings

Most activity in Agriculture/Grocery and Freight/Logistics sectors

Shift from private startups to public companies and consortia

Hyperledger projects have higher success and lower failure rates

Abstract

In this research, the evolution of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in supply chains has been mapped from the inception of the technology until June 2020, utilising primarily public data sources. Two hundred seventy-one blockchain projects operating in the supply chain have been analysed on parameters such as their inception dates, types of blockchain, stages reached, sectors applied to and type of organisation that founded the project. We confirm generally understood trends in the blockchain market with the creation of projects following the general hype and funding levels in the industry. We observe most activity in the Agriculture/Grocery sector and the Freight/Logistics sector. We see the shift of market interest from primarily private companies (startups) to public companies and consortia and the change in blockchain adoption from Ethereum to Hyperledger. Finally, we observe higher success and lower failure rates for Hyperledger-based projects in comparison to Ethereum-based projects.