Blockchain solutions for supply chain management and digitized traceability are increasingly on the chopping block.

While tech crypto purists continue to tout the transformative potential of blockchain technology, the Web3 architecture that also supports the cryptocurrency ecosystem, leading enterprise organizations are quietly shuttering pilot projects and revising their own expectations around the technology’s supposedly revolutionary applications.

At a high level, blockchain provides organizations with an immutable, decentralized ledger allowing data and digital assets to be tracked across interactions. Anything can be tracked and traced using blockchain, and it is that promise and premise which underpins the appeal of the technology’s potential for businesses looking to streamline their logistics and other processes, both internal and external.

As it is, big name early adopters like Maersk and IBM  are winding down their TradeLens system during the start of 2023. The ambition of TradeLens, which began in 2018, was to digitize global supply chains, reduce fragmentation, and share tracking and accounting information. The desired “level of cooperation and support has not been possible to achieve at this point in time,” stated an announcement of the platform’s discontinuation.

Had the solution worked as intended, it would have been a gamechanger for the shipping industry, removing paperwork hassles and offering greater visibility into shipments of all…