Blockchain is still considered a new technology, but when you look at how much of an impact it has had on a variety of industries, it’s hard to consider it in its infancy. This technology has single-handedly transformed some of the world’s most critical industries, from finance and technology, even to the food industry.
You may think that the relationship between restaurants and blockchain is not important, but you’d be very wrong! In recent years, many restaurants have started to leverage the power of blockchain and use it to enhance the experience of their customers. In this article, we’ll be discussing how blockchain is being used in other industries, and the way that the restaurant industry has taken this technology and used it to their advantage.
How Is Blockchain Used in Other Industries?
The use of blockchain is widespread across a range of industries, going far beyond its initial application of enhancing online payments. Industries such as supply chain management, healthcare, real estate, and finance have all benefited from the capabilities of blockchain. Even in industries like online gaming, blockchain has been a fundamental part of the customer offering and has allowed for a new era of gaming to come to fruition. The online gaming industry is a great example of how blockchain can be leveraged, like in a Bitcoin casino where players can make quick, efficient, and verifiable online payments when they’re making bets, without the hassle and delays of paying in a flat currency.
Similarly, in other industries blockchain has been used to ensure smooth transactions, reduce the need for intermediaries, increase trust between buyers and sellers, and promote transparency online.
How Restaurants Can Use Blockchain Technology
Most people see blockchain as a technology that helps with finances and dealing with data, which is why it can be hard to believe that the technology is revolutionizing the restaurant industry; an industry that revolves around serving physical food to paying customers.
Here are some of the ways that the restaurant industry is already starting to utilize blockchain:
- Ensuring Supply Chain Transparency
When you’re a restaurant relying on getting your daily delivery of fresh ingredients, things can start to get complicated when supply chains get into disarray.
Thanks to blockchain’s decentralized nature, restaurants can ensure complete transparency when it comes to looking at their supply chain. With blockchain solutions, they can easily see where items are within the supply chain and decide whether it’s going to come in time to make their daily revolving menu.
The same features can also be used to show customers where the food they’re eating comes from. For example, if a customer wants to know where the fish they’re eating came from, they can simply ask a server who can use a QR code to give them detailed information on when the fish was caught, what fishing vessel it was carried on, and even the name of the fishermen.
This level of transparency not only makes customers feel more confident about the foods that they are eating but also puts more pressure on all areas of the supply chain to adopt more sustainable farming practices as everything is completely traceable.
- Create Rewarding Loyalty Programs for Customers
One of the most important things that a restaurant wants to achieve is creating a base of loyal customers who will continue to come back to the restaurant and spread word to their friends. One method of attracting these loyal customers is through designing a customer loyalty program.
Blockchain technology can be used to enhance these loyalty schemes to hold customer information securely and create blockchain-based loyalty tokens that customers can redeem at a future time. These tokens can be used to redeem rewards, discounts, or even personalized dining experiences which will enhance the customer experience.
- Enhancing Food Safety Standards in the Kitchen
Finally, restaurants are using blockchain technology to ensure that the highest food standard levels are maintained within their kitchens.
Food standards are something that every restaurant needs to meet, whether they’re a small coffee shop in the city, or if you specialize in Kawaii-inspired cuisine in a private restaurant.
Using blockchain technology, restaurants can track the entire lifecycle of ingredients and produce they use to create their dishes. This will come in useful when a food safety concern is raised; restaurants can quickly look back through the chain and identify the affected batch and alert other members of the supply chain.
This means that issues are quickly dealt with so the recalls can be organized timely, and the risk of foodborne illnesses is minimized.
The Future of Blockchain in the Restaurant Industry
Blockchain is already been widely used throughout the restaurant industry, and we expect it to play an even more important role over the next few years. With contactless ordering, fielding customer reviews, and ensuring supply chain transparency, it will be hard to imagine a food industry without blockchain very soon
