New blockchain technology companies raised more than $2.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, more than all of 2020, then raised another $4.1 billion in the second quarter.
The technology began with Bitcoin, but now is being adopted by many other companies, mainly for secure ways to share information along supply chains.
The United States leads with investments totalling $12.5 billion; Europe follows with $6.18 billion and Asia with $5.48 billion.
Currency companies, such as Bitcoin, continue to be the most popular blockchain startups.
According to research, more than 20 per cent of the top global companies will use blockchain by the year 2025.
In an on-line article about how blockchain technology can be used in the food industry, the authors wrote that “if consumers want to buy organic tomato ketchup, they rely on the label claim. The manufacturer of ketchup relies on the supplier of tomato puree or concentrate processor. The tomato processor relies on the claim/organic certification furnished by the farmer or farmer association. If any of the participants provide a false claim, both the consumers and other participants are cheated.
“Blockchain provides a secure environment where each of the participants in the blockchain network has access to each set of data and these data, once entered and verified, cannot be modified.
“For example, a farmer that provides an organic food certificate, which is verified by an authorised agency, cannot have that certificate tampered with at later date.
“Information or data provided by each participant referred to as a transaction forms a block. This block is verified by thousands, perhaps millions, of computers distributed around the blockchain network.
“The verified block is added to a chain, which is stored as multiple copies across the net. This creates a unique record with a unique history.
“Modifying a single record would mean modifying the entire chain and in millions of computers (nodes), which is practically impossible.”
