Boeing has collaborated with multinational aerospace conglomerate Honeywell to utilize its GoDirect platform to track and sell $1 billion equivalent of excess airplane parts applying blockchain technology.

The collaboration was unveiled at the Hyperledger Global Forum 2020 in Arizona. Lisa Butters, the general manager of Honeywell, said that the parts were uploaded to the GoDirect Trade marketplace last weekend.

Blockchain presents spare aviation parts industry to online trade

The aviation industry has conventionally relied on a headache-inducing web of paper certificates about each part, their original manufacturer, and prevailing safety standards. 

The documents must also be materially moved between various locations, which has limited the market for aviation parts from growing online due to fraud concerns. 

As such, GoDirect Trade attempts to start the aviation parts industry up to digital commerce — with Butters predicting that only 3% of the $14 billion market takes place online.

Permissioned v/s open blockchains for enterprises

Honeywell’s GoDirect platform includes a customized version of Hyperledger Fabric’s open-source code that started less than two years ago.

Butters says that in its first year, GoDirect Trade promoted $7 million in sales — which she assumes will be more than triple by the end of this year. There are about 6,500 registered GoDirect users representing 2,400 companies.

Lisa Butters rejected criticisms of permission-ledgers like HyperLedger Fabric, saying, “GoDirect Trade runs on Hyperledger Fabric. If anyone argues about the fact that this is a permission-based network that is supposed to be decentralized, then they are killing the dream of enterprise blockchain before it starts. There is no way you will get Fortune 500 companies participating in blockchain networks and sharing data if there are not permissioned around that. You need some constraints for enterprises to operate in.”

Microsoft, Ernst & Young, and ConsenSys declared the launch of their open-source Baseline protocol — involving a tokenization and smart contract platform on the Ethereum blockchain produced for enterprises, on March 4. The platform’s code has been made accessible to select developers by invitation, with a public launch supposed to take place later this month.