By Amit Ganeriwalla, Michael Casey, Prema Shrikrishna, Jan Philipp Bender, and Stefan Gstettner

This article is the result of a collaboration between BCG and the MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI), based at the MIT Media Lab.

Many new digital technologies at various stages of development hold promise for manufacturers and the supply chain. The challenge for management teams is knowing which technologies to invest in—and when. Case in point: blockchain technology. Once seemingly at the far end of the time horizon, blockchains are suddenly poised for rapid growth. Why? Because they offer a solution to the growing problem of how to manage increasingly complicated networks of manufacturers and suppliers at a time when transparency, speed, and agility are critical.