A multinational closures company has announced what it describes as the first European winery that tracks wine products using "connected closures" that leverage near-field communication and blockchain technology. The product reportedly allows customers to verify the authenticity of bottles and obtain detailed information about where the wines are made and in which vineyards the grapes are grown. In related news, a global leader in crop nutrition has partnered with a multinational computing giant to launch a blockchain platform inviting collaboration among food suppliers. The project aims to unify data that is typically dispersed and inaccessible in order to foster trust and provide access to shared data that can increase profits and improve sustainability. However, supply chain blockchain projects are likely to tread water until 2022, according to a Connecticut-based research company, which recently cited the lack of digitization of core aspects of the industry as the primary reason for the delay.

For the past few years, a well-known national news conglomerate has worked on a collaboration with an international computing giant to create the News Provenance Project, which seeks to explore solutions that could reduce the proliferation of misinformation online. The project recently published findings from a proof of concept intended to demonstrate how publishers might leverage blockchain technology to allow consumers of media to view how information and photographs have been changed or tampered with over time.

Another blockchain use case announced this week seeks to leverage blockchain to provide academic credentialing services, allowing graduates and employees to authenticate degrees earned while maintaining control over who can access the information. As this is just one of many recently announced blockchain solutions, it is no surprise that the enterprise blockchain developer community appears to be thriving, with a reported 12-fold increase in the number of engineers between the Q3 2016 and Q4 2019 periods, according to the newly released "Enterprise Blockchain Protocols Evolution Index 2020" report.

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