I asked this downthread, but to rephrase: are there any semi-objective case studies on blockchains being useful for physical items, such as the food supply tracking that IBM is doing?

(I mean, I see plenty of blockchain startups promoting this use case, but they inevitably end up with a pitch to get on a blockchain.)

I do not understand how, in the case of food supply, that a blockchain is somehow better than a good ol’ database. You can verify the ledger, but I don’t see how that’s the primary issue. It seems like the issue would be getting everyone up and down the supply chain to get on board with tracking everything, and not the integrity of the ledger. If a meat packing plant is going to adulterate the pork, the problem is going to be getting any verification at all, and not them hiring some hackers to mess with a database.