Volkswagen is joining IBM's blockchain to track its mineral supply chain in order to ethically source materials used for its vehicles.
According to CoinDesk, miners and consumer brands are relying on third-party audits and manual processes to source minerals. By using blockchain technology, supply chains can help meet responsible sourcing standards while providing a permanent record of movements to aid the compliance process.
Volkswagen will begin to use a new permissioned platform to enable tracking of minerals across the global supply chain.
“Participants in the network, validated by RCS Global Group for compliance with responsible sourcing standards, can contribute and access immutable data in a secure and permissioned way to trace and record the flow of minerals across the supply chain in near real-time,” VW said in an announcement.