Mastercard and AWS grow payments for supply chain
Accenture, Mastercard and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have teamed up to introduce a circular supply chain capability that uses digital identity, payments and blockchain for growers and suppliers.
Mastercard and AWS are supporting supply chain and sustainable consumption
Along with the three firms, Everledger and Mercy Corps, will look at solutions to reward sustainable practices of small-scale producers.
The deal will also see Accenture, Mastercard and AWS promote their digital tech in new and developing regions.
Tara Nathan, EVO, humanitarian and development at Mastercard, comments: “For the 3.4 billion people – almost half the world’s population – that still struggle to meet basic needs, we believe that digital technologies are largely untapped. To put more people onto the path from poverty to prosperity, we need to create an ecosystem that streamlines access to education, health, commerce, and more.”
The circular supply chain capability is intended to meet this need by combining blockchain, digital identity and payments technologies to allow customers to identify individual producers who use sustainable methods and financially reward them with a “tip” made by direct payment.
According to Accenture, digital identity is a “critical enabler” of the offering. Through each producer’s unique digital identifier, data about the “first mile” of their goods is established and linked to their products as they move through the supply chain. End consumers, through a scan of a label, can access details of the product and further, and get that “tip”.
With the use of distributed ledger solutions, Accenture reckons the circular supply chain capability could benefit large global enterprises, governments and non-governmental organisations by providing a new mechanism for them to track complex supply chains to small originating producers and helping them manage issues relating to accountability, waste and information transparency.
