Blockchain in Decentralized Manufacturing

Bitcoin is currently hitting new highs, outshining the slow-acting and reactive financial world. Many long-time investors in this world’s cryptocurrencies are now well off with returns of several hundred percent. The hype around bitcoin is based, among other things, on the blockchain technology behind it. This allows transactions and payment processes to be processed securely and quickly at the same time.
Festo, together with the startup Fetch.AI, also wants to take advantage of this. In manufacturing, there is often uneven utilization of machines and production lines, as demand is very volatile and sometimes shows high short-term fluctuations. A decentralized manufacturing marketplace is intended to address this problem. The idea behind it: A company can put its free capacity up for sale on the marketplace for a customer to ensure full capacity utilization. On the other hand, overloaded companies can purchase capacities to satisfy the demand.
Here, Fetch.ai offers an agent-based approach to extend autonomy in manufacturing further. The integrated blockchain enables the aforementioned anti-counterfeiting and is designed in such a lightweight way that many participants can process their requests and transactions simultaneously and in a well-documented manner. Another side aspect of blockchain use is direct payment via cryptocurrency, documented in the blockchain. The AI/blockchain agents are deployed per machine per company to break down the workloads to the smallest possible unit and bring out the most value. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain deployment can have tremendous benefits for internal production or cross-enterprise supply chains, providing a tamper-proof record for any transaction.