Everledger was founded to record high-value items (starting with diamonds) on a blockchain, aiming to reduce fraud and improve provenance (origin and ownership history). Early projects helped show how blockchain could store tamper-resistant records that multiple organizations could rely on. This helped set the stage for later supply-chain pilot projects beyond luxury goods.
Walmart and IBM announced pilot projects to trace mangoes in U.S. stores and pork in China using a permissioned blockchain (a blockchain where participants are approved). The goal was practical: speed up “traceback,” so the company could identify a product’s source faster during food-safety investigations. These pilots became widely cited examples of blockchain tested in real supply-chain conditions.
Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 was released as “production-ready,” giving organizations a widely used open-source base for permissioned blockchain networks. This mattered for supply chains because it supported shared ledgers among known business partners, with configurable privacy and access controls. Many enterprise pilots and early deployments in trade and traceability used Fabric or related Hyperledger tools.
The MediLedger Project was announced to explore blockchain-based approaches for pharmaceutical supply-chain requirements under the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). The work focused on tracking and verifying drug information across many companies without relying on one central database. It highlighted a key challenge for blockchain in supply chains: balancing shared verification with protection of sensitive business data.
De Beers launched Tracr to record diamonds’ movement from mine to market using blockchain-based records. The focus was traceability and provenance, responding to rising demand for proof of ethical sourcing. Tracr became a major example of blockchain used for end-to-end tracking in a high-value, global supply chain.
European countries and the European Commission launched the European Blockchain Partnership to build the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). While not limited to commercial supply chains, EBSI’s cross-border infrastructure and pilots supported broader efforts to digitize and verify documents and credentials across many jurisdictions. It showed how public-sector blockchain infrastructure could interact with trade, customs, and cross-border compliance needs over time.
Maersk and IBM introduced TradeLens as a blockchain-enabled platform to share shipping events and trade documents across carriers, ports, and authorities. The project targeted a common supply-chain pain point: information silos that slow down shipments and increase paperwork errors. TradeLens became one of the most visible “global trade blockchain” pilots of the period.
Walmart asked leafy-green suppliers to trace products back to the farm using blockchain, setting a target timeline for suppliers to have systems in place. The move mattered because it pushed beyond a limited pilot toward wider supplier participation, which is often the hardest part of supply-chain digitization. It also tied blockchain adoption directly to food safety and faster recalls.
IBM announced broader access to IBM Food Trust after extended beta testing with major food companies. The platform aimed to make traceability data easier to share across growers, processors, distributors, and retailers. This marked a shift from small pilots to a packaged service that more organizations could adopt.
IBM reported that additional major ocean carriers completed TradeLens integration and joined as “foundation carriers,” aiming to reduce data gaps across multi-carrier shipping. This step addressed a core adoption barrier: competitors must still cooperate on shared standards and governance for a trade platform to be useful. The milestone showed both progress and the dependence on broad industry participation.
EBSI’s first cross-border pilot launched, testing blockchain-based approaches for sharing verifiable information across countries. While the early pilots focused on public-service use cases like education credentials, the work supported broader European experience with cross-border blockchain infrastructure and governance. This helped clarify what is required to operate a shared network across many institutions.
De Beers reported scaling Tracr to provide provenance assurance for 100% of its diamonds from source, aiming to make origin claims more verifiable across the value chain. This marked a shift from experimentation toward operational use in a major global commodity supply chain. By the mid-2020s, such projects illustrated how blockchain was most likely to persist where it delivered clear value in traceability and market trust.
GS1 published EPCIS/CBV 2.0, a major update to a widely used standard for sharing “what, when, where, why, and how” supply-chain event data. This mattered for blockchain and digitalization pilots because shared ledgers are far more useful when partners agree on common data formats and vocabularies. The update supported modern integrations (such as JSON/REST) and new data types like sensor information.
The BIS Innovation Hub and four central banks completed a pilot of cross-border payments using CBDCs on the mBridge platform, including real-value foreign exchange and payment transactions. Although focused on payments, this type of settlement infrastructure is relevant to supply chains because trade depends on reliable cross-border payment and FX. The pilot showed distributed-ledger approaches being tested at an interbank level.
Maersk and IBM announced they would discontinue TradeLens, saying it did not reach the level of commercial viability needed to continue as an independent business. The decision highlighted a key lesson from 2015–2025 pilots: technology alone is not enough—industry-wide collaboration, governance, and incentives are critical. TradeLens’s end became a clear turning point in expectations for large, shared blockchain platforms in global shipping.
The BIS reported that Project mBridge reached a minimum viable product (MVP) stage in mid-2024 after collaboration that began in 2021. The update emphasized governance, legal frameworks, and multi-party operations as the project moved from experiments toward a usable platform. For supply chains, it showed that “digitalization pilots” increasingly included not just tracking goods but also modernizing settlement rails that support cross-border trade.
Blockchain and Digitalization Pilot Projects in Global Supply Chains (2015–2025)