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10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2020 clients—which spans from semiconductor to consumer electronics. Johnson: That's exactly the space that we're hoping to talk about—the electronics supply. For those of us who don't really know, what is blockchain? What does it do, and why is it good for this sort of application? Begue: Blockchain is, at its core, a shared led- ger. It's a way to record a transaction that involves multiple parties in a ledger, which is shared by these parties. Instead of record- ing your accounting transaction with another partner—which is recorded when completed in two separate ledgers—here is a ledger that accounts for the transaction that brings you two together. In the life of doing business, you and this other party do business with many other parties. If you design the blockchain to include all these different parties, there would be this led- ger which records the set of transactions that brings two or multiple parties together as they relate to each other. It's novel because of the way it reaches across multiple organizations IBM: Supply Chain Blockchain Feature Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 IBM's Michelle Lam and Christophe Begue, along with Nolan Johnson, discuss the basics of blockchain, and how it enables a more secure and traceable supply chain. They also address some of the applications for this tech- nology and what the future holds. Nolan Johnson: Maybe we could start with an introduction from each of you, your back- ground, and your title? Michelle Lam: I'm a senior technical staff mem- ber in IBM's System Supply Chain Engineering organization. Among many roles I have, coun- terfeit prevention program manager is one that got me into working on blockchain. Christophe Begue: I'm the director of solution strategy in the industry team for the electron- ics industry at IBM. My job is to bring the var- ious things that IBM does, and solutions from our partners, and package them together to specifically address the various needs of our