Most blockchain coverage is about money. These articles look at three industries where the pitch was different: that a shared, tamper-evident record could fix a problem of trust between organizations. For each one we separate what the law or the market requires, what was actually piloted or launched, what the people behind it claim, and what independent observers say. For definitions, see the glossary.
Pharmaceutical track-and-trace
America’s drug supply chain law asks for package-level tracing. Several blockchain pilots tried to deliver it. Here is what is documented, who says so, and where a blockchain was not the deciding ingredient.
Land and property registries
Land titles are the textbook case for a tamper-proof record. Four government projects tried it. Here is what each one built, how far it got, and why many analysts say the hard part is not the ledger.
Environmental credits
A ledger can record an environmental credit. It cannot confirm that a farm, forest or well site actually avoided or stored the emissions. Here is how credits work, where farmers get stuck, and four blockchain approaches in and near the space.
How this series works
Each article asks the same four questions: what problem exists today, what was built, what evidence shows it worked, and where a blockchain was or was not the necessary ingredient. That last question is the one most coverage skips. A project can be real, useful and honestly described and still not need a blockchain, and we say so where the sources do.
Every factual claim carries one of five evidence labels, defined below. We do not assign a score, rank projects or recommend tokens or vendors. Where nothing is documented, we say “none documented” and move on. Where sources conflict, we show both. We paraphrase instead of quoting at length and link the primary document wherever we found one. If you can show us a better source, our corrections page says how.
How to read the evidence labels
- Confirmed A primary source and at least one independent source agree.
- Issuer-stated Only the project, foundation or company says so. We did not find an independent check.
- Reported A credible outlet reports it, but we did not find or read a primary document.
- Disputed Credible sources conflict. We give both versions.
- Unknown We looked and found no source either way.
The labels describe sourcing, not quality. A claim labeled Issuer-stated may be entirely accurate; it simply has no independent check we could find. Dollar figures for sales paid in bitcoin or ether are conversions made at some point in time, not amounts the buyers paid.