Samsung may soon adopt the blockchain technology in handling its wide network of supply chains on a global level. Song Kwang-woo, blockchain head at Samsung SDS, said that the firm could use a blockchain ledger system as part of its operations in the future. It is expected that Samsung SDS will be managing 488,000 tons of air cargo and a million of 20-foot-equivalent shipping units in 2018 alone.
Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and the South Korean tech giant reportedly jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon earlier this year, with industry sources claiming it embraced it for mass-producing ASIC chipsets specialized for mining certain types of ASIC-based coins. It’s still not clear whether Samsung’s ASIC chipset is based on the SHA256 or Scrypt mining standard. However, considering that Bitcoin is currently the most popular cryptocurrency on the planet, Samsung likely prioritized SHA256. Additionally, Samsung supposedly teamed up with an unnamed Chinese firm specializing in mining hardware and manufacturing chips for crypto mining. In October last year, Samsung introduced an “Upcycling” initiative with the goal of breathing new life into its older Android smartphones which are still relatively capable computational machines able to address a number of user needs, with one of the first results of the program being a Bitcoin mining rig powered by a set of old Galaxy S5 units.
Samsung’s interest in blockchain began after the company realized the importance of the technology in securely passing Bitcoin and is now hoping to leverage a similar solution to manage the entirety of its global supply network. Blockchain can flexibly be used for almost all types of transactions, and that’s what has been on the mind of Samsung for quite some time now, according to Song. No timeline for the implementation of the technology has been provided by the company official.