Blockchain Technology Powering Institutional Solutions: Blockchain Expo Europe

Blockchain is no longer a buzzword thrown around by mainstream institutions as meaningful and fully operational pilots and programs emerge at Blockchain Expo Europe 2022 in Amsterdam.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of mainstream companies from various industries began exploring ways blockchain technology could be used to improve processes and products.

After two years of social distancing and working from home, the time has come to reap the fruits of the seeds sown, as evidenced by some exciting updates from major companies using blockchain technology.

The worlds of business consulting, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and the energy sector all provide working, blockchain-powered solutions that have seemingly proven the wide range of utility promised by the emerging technology.

Cointelegraph was on the ground for the event and managed to connect with a number of speakers who showcased how their firms were using the technology to drive innovation.

EY, the global business consulting firm, has been working hard to build enterprise-class blockchain capabilities for the past three years. Federico De Poli, who leads the global development of the EY OpsChain functionality, outlined how the firm had spent over $100 million over the past three years building a working product solution.

Driving enterprise adoption has been key, helping customers navigate a new environment, building privacy tools focused on security, and helping companies run business processes on the Ethereum blockchain.

As De Poli explained, the company’s proprietary EY Opschain and EY Blockchain Analyzer are two main tools that use blockchain technology:

“Opschain products are our business suite of products. We have traceability which is our most used tool that is used in production by several customers in various industries. We have a contract manager that is used in an initial trial period – it is a tool that helps us with to make digital contracts between parties.”

EY’s public finance manager also allows governments to track spending of funds, proving the widespread usability of blockchain solutions.

Healthcare and pharmaceutical firms also attended the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center. Alex Popa, Assistant Director of Blockchain for Pharma Supply Excellence, MSD (Merck), outlined a pilot aimed at solving multifaceted healthcare network issues.

Plagued by expensive, inefficient and vulnerable systems, blockchain technology provides practical solutions to these problems. MSD has run a pilot to combat a vexing industry problem and counterfeit drugs using the Hyperledger Fabric, which enabled patients in Hong Kong to verify the authenticity of medicines from the source.

Jessica Lee, Head of Blockchain for Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Commercial North America, also showcased a value-based healthcare pilot project to share data privately, securely and transparently using blockchain technology.

Sabine Brink, blockchain manager at Shell, gave a compelling presentation focusing on digital innovation in the energy sector. An important takeaway was the growing use of blockchain technology to drive transparency in energy.

The firm is engaged in several blockchain-powered projects distributed on public blockchains to address a long-standing propensity for the energy sector to work in silos. A key highlight was Shell’s work supporting Avelia, a sustainable, blockchain-powered tracking of jet fuel aimed at decarbonising air travel.

Avelia outlines that 90 percent of airline emissions can be attributed to business travel, and serves as sustainability as a service product for corporate jets and airlines to order and claim sustainable jet fuel:

“Energy is being distributed and decentralized, and it’s hard to imagine it being orchestrated in a centralized way. There’s no other way to get it done on a global scale, and blockchain has a huge role to play.”

Conversations with conference delegates and speakers highlighted the apparent progress being made in developing working blockchain solutions across industries. The technology has driven innovation across industries, and mainstream companies are doing their part to drive new uses and solutions for blockchain-based systems.