Hey everyone welcome back to tech feed. I’m juliet beauchamp and today i want to talk about how some united states government agencies are considering blockchain’s possibilities. Stick around.
Both the federal communications commission and the food and drug administration here in the u-s are eyeing blockchain solutions for totally different problems. The f-c-c recently revealed it is looking for a way to better track and trace wi-fi spectrums. As more and more iot sensors are deployed for infrastructure or other uses, the f-c-c is exploring ways to speed up the transfer of data between iot devices. Since the number of iot devices and sensors is expected to grow from 21 billion this year to 50 billion by 2022, simplifying and accelerating data transfer is of course a high priority. Blockchain could also add valuable insight about how the air waves are being used.
But the f-c-c isn’t the only federal agency exploring the benefits of blockchain. The food and drug administration is considering using the technology to trace food back to its origin–and that could be huge for food safety. Right now, tracing food back to its source is pretty difficult. Many in the food delivery supply chain currently rely on paper-based tracking systems. Using blockchain to track and trace food from the farm to the shelf would change this completely.
With a clear view on were exactly food came from, food safety scares like last year’s e-coli outbreak could be resolved more easily. In that example, the e-coli was traced back to romaine lettuce–but because the lettuce couldn’t immediately be traced back to its source, plenty of stores had to get rid of millions of dollars of product.
While some grocery chains have implemented or announced similar blockchain concepts for food safety, implementation by the f-d-a would mean the 80 percent of food in the u-s the f-d-a oversees for safety would be traceable through blockchain.
While neither the f-d-a nor the f-c-c has actually implemented these blockchain strategies, seeing the federal government push forward with blockchain solutions confirms what we already know–blockchain isn’t just all hype. It’s a viable technology that can change or enhance the way a lot of enterprises do business.
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