Volkswagen Employs IBM Blockchain To Track Minerals Supply Chains

Volkswagen Group, the German automaker will be employing blockchain tech in order to track its mineral supply chains, as stated by the company in the announcement on Thursday.

The company elaborated that in order to “responsibly source” minerals such as cobalt (used in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles), they have joined an open industry collaboration, which also includes Ford as a member.

As of now, miners and consumer brands depend upon third-party audits and “laborious” manual processes to comply with widely accepted industry standards for sourcing their minerals, VW added. With blockchain technology, the firm could track supply chains and subsequently meet responsible sourcing standards that are set out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the technology provides a permanent record of mineral movements to aid the compliance process.

VW will employ a new permissioned platform, developed by the group on IBM Blockchain, built on Hyperledger Fabric to achieve the same. Formed earlier this year, the collaboration further includes cobalt mining company Huayou, LG Chem (a unit of South Korean conglomerate LG Corp.) and raw materials supply chain auditing firm RCS Global as members.

VW said in its announcement:

“Participants in the network, validated by RCS Global Group for compliance with responsible sourcing standards, can contribute and access immutable data in a secure and permissioned way to trace and record the flow of minerals across the supply chain in near real-time.”

Furthermore, the firm added that the group aims to expand membership to include other industries, including aerospace, consumer electronics, and mining operations.

Read more: Nestle, Carrefour Jointly Employ IBM Blockchain To Provide Consumers With Product Data

Image Source- Volkswagen Twitter