Trust is the Most Important in Successful Blockchain Implementations

According to the latest report from on the impact of blockchain technology, what the aerospace industry doesn’t know about its planes is costing it serious money. And what it could do with all that knowledge has the potential to create new streams of value.

Despite the technological sophistication of modern commercial aircraft, much of the data that's crucial to keeping any aircraft airborne is collected manually. With technologies such as 3D printing and AI being crucial to transforming different industries, there's one innovation the aerospace industry should consider and that is blockchain. Implementing Blockchain’s decentralized and considerably more secure technology makes it a perfect fit to help overcome challenges the industry faces.

Blockchain has the power of creating a digital ‘birth certificate’ for every part that’s installed in a plane and update it every time the plane is serviced or inspected by a technician, along with capturing many other details that will give an accurate view of the plane’s history. PwC analysis has found that efficiency gains enabled by blockchain could increase the aerospace industry revenue by as much as 4%, or US$40bn, while cutting Maintenance, Repair and Operations costs by about 5%, or US$3.5bn.

Blockchain won’t revolutionise the aerospace industry overnight. Rather, it will supercharge other innovations that companies are already adopting, like the IoT, cloud computing and data analytics. Global Blockchain Survey showed that across industries, 54% of executives with blockchain projects say the effort sometimes or often hasn’t been worth the result. That’s why a successful blockchain data record for the life of an aircraft will necessarily start small with one system or process, not with an entire airplane.

"Successful blockchain projects require a great deal of trust between participants. That may seem ironic for a technology that's supposed to be 'trustless,' but creating an ecosystem in which all participants can feel confident that they will benefit takes careful coordination and collaboration. That's especially true when competitors must find common ground to create a system that works for all," says Rachel Parker Sealy, Industrial Products Technology Principal, PwC US.