‘Think globally, act locally’ is no longer a phrase reserved for the San Francisco liberal hippie intellectual. More and more millennials are demanding visibility into food sourcing and supply chain transparency, opting to purchase more expensive local and organic items over conventional cost-conscious products. These evolving consumer preferences and the growing maturity of blockchain technology present a new opportunity to introduce the immutable ledger into our modern-day supply chain operations and consumer purchasing decisions.
Measuring your impact
A single ledger with detailed transactional data creates a rich dataset that can be leveraged for a variety of purposes. One of those is measuring your carbon impact and comparing your data against your peers. For example, you could measure your carbon impact by analyzing the average distance your food has traveled and food waste associated with your purchase to see how sustainable you are. You could even compare your data across the average scores of your peers. The practice could even come full circle and analyze your crypto socks purchase, see more here. A simple app can help anyone determine how much they’re contributing to climate change and the end of the world.
Social Shaming
What if you knew your partner, friend or neighbor was acutely aware of your food purchasing decisions? Would that influence your behavior, or would it be business as usual? With the advent of social media oversharing and a constant need for internet validation, it would be very possible to shame large groups into becoming more conscious about the food they consume and, thereby, influence their purchasing decisions accordingly. Although there is a massive tradeoff with data privacy, it is well worth the cost.
Corporate Accountability
The impact of blockchain technology goes beyond the individual. Sure, you can measure what you are doing, and what your friends are doing, but at the end of the day, the biggest issues we face on the planet today are due to corporations run amok. As blockchain continues to infiltrate the establishment systems that control our current public domain, corporations will be forced to publish their daily, weekly, monthly and yearly actions on a verifiable, immutable record. This will lead to a future where consumers aren’t simply making their decisions based on biased marketing and personal whims. They will understand and utilize this expanded knowledge base to inform every purchasing decision.
Government Reform
Maybe the most pivotal and vital aspect of blockchain reformation will come in the form of its impact on human governments. We all understand the importance of government towards ensuring a safe and equitable living state for all humans, but so often we do not fully grasp the scale that goes into the decisions of politicians. By embedding this information on publicly accessible blockchains, we will finally attain a working system of laws that everyone is capable of utilizing to their furthest extent. Government watchdogs, long underappreciated and starved of the information that they desperately need, will be able to finally fulfill their duties to a total extent. And, thankfully, those good politicians that do follow the rules will finally be rewarded. Meanwhile, those who skirt rules and use power to their own advantage will have their day of reckoning.
As highlighted by Investopedia, blockchain is still a new and evolving technology, but one thing is clear: It will completely change our lives in the coming decades. A new future is coming that will allow for transparency and equity for all.
