Blockchain in Supply Chains: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead

Abstract: Supply chains have long struggled with limited visibility, frauds, the headache of coordinating across borders with different regulatory regimes. The blockchain technology promised to fix it, and for a while, it seemed like it might do it. However, when high-profile initiatives like IBM TradeLens failed, many practitioners become skeptical. So, what went wrong, and what can we learn from it?

This lecture takes a critical look at blockchain's journey in supply chain management. We begin with the core challenges that motivated blockchain adoption in the first place, then examine why early solutions, despite technical capability got stumbled. We look for governance conflicts and regulatory misalignments of such systems. We then turn to what a more mature, infrastructure-first approach might look like, using a seafood traceability case study to ground the discussion in something concrete. By the end, attendees should have a clearer sense of not just what blockchain can do for supply chains, but what conditions need to be in place for it to work in practice