When a consumer is looking to deliver a parcel, it is not only important to ensure that the parcel gets to the desired location in good time and condition, but also that every stage of the supply chain is efficient, secure and, most importantly, safe.

The need for secure payment methods could see the introduction of bitcoin into courier & delivery services, but to what extent?

Following is a look at how the logistics industry could start incorporating bitcoin into delivery services and how this would benefit not only the consumer, but also, the industry as a whole.

Blockchain technology

When sending large parcels via a courier service, consumers will always want each and every payment to be as secure as possible, and so the entire transaction process could be benefited by the introduction of blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology ensures that each and every bitcoin transaction is secure through digital signatures and the public nature of the technology. By acting as a ledger that everyone can see and with cryptographic signatures ensuring that only the owner of the coins can use them, blockchain reduces the overall risk and ensures that transactions cannot be tampered with.

This would benefit consumers who want to send a parcel to another country in particular, simply because it would ensure that the price they pay cannot be altered by hidden exchange fees.

A digital world

The integration of bitcoin into logistics would not only make the entire process more secure but it also would allow the unbanked portion of society to be able to pay for their service also.

This is vital because it would expand the overall customer reach and allow room for further integration within other markets and elements of business.

Additionally successful integration of bitcoin into logistics would allow companies to transact sales worldwide through the internet, thus speeding up the process and allowing them to increase sales dramatically.

No transaction fees

Due to the digital and decentralized nature of bitcoin, it is completely ungoverned. In the case of bitcoin, this means that there are no exchange rates or transaction fees, making bitcoin purchases cheaper for everyone involved, compared with fiat currencies.

The price of bitcoins is usually established by a conversion rate depending on the currency that you are using to purchase them, however each fiat currency benefits from the lack of — or extremely low — fees, regardless of the initial exchange rate.

The security of wallets and keys

Due to the decentralized nature of bitcoin, accessibility is much easier for all, and the ability of wallets to keep coins safe, could make bitcoin an ideal alternative payment in logistics.

Due to the secure but visible nature of blockchain, each person is given two keys — a public key and a private key. The public key can be seen by all but the private key is, as the name suggests, viewable only by an authorized individual.

A private key is required for all transactions. This adds yet another layer of security, ensuring that bitcoins a consumer has purchased are there for that individual's use at any time. This can make consumers and logistics managers alike feel much more secure, in that fraud is much less likely than it could be with fiat currencies.

The accessibility of bitcoin and its worldwide reach has created the ability in recent years to make the control of transactions far more secure.

This would benefit the parcel delivery service because it would ensure that, once approved, payments and orders could not be tampered with, improving the efficiency of the logistics industry as a whole.

With increased visibility and improvements in payment security, consumers and businesses alike would have greater peace of mind that the entire supply chain would run smoothly and without fraud from start to finish.

Source: www.blockchaintechnews.com / Damien Troy​