BLOCKCHAIN HAS BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH BITCOIN BUT, EXPLAINS DAVE BERRIDGE, SECRETARY OF THE AUTOMATED MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS ASSOCIATION (AMHSA), IT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BRING SIGNIFICANT EFFICIENCIES TO GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS. A blockchain is a permanent, digital and public ledger of transactions. It is essentially a database that is not held in a central location but rather duplicated across the computers of all interested parties, with all copies updated simultaneously. As the records - called blocks - are linked and secured using cryptography, it is inherently resistant to fraud. Where security issues have arisen - famously, the Mt. Gox and Bitfinex bitcoin exchange heists - they have been caused by attempts to centralise a decentralised system, rather than vulnerabilities in blockchain itself.
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