Hello,
Could someone pls explain some specific details - what I mean is that in general I understand the idea behind, but I'm missing what is the actual advantage over the "classic" systems?
I will point out my doubts:
1. The general feature always mentioned is ensuring that nobody "manipulates" the history of the shipping - however it's just an entry in the blockchain - it only ensures that the specific "id" is not faked - how that suppose to ensure the real goods, while the "id" is just a sticker or print or some box or whatever kind of container?
Entries in the blockchain aren't verified by a single-pass verification system, so there are multitude of tests a single entry has to pass before it gets accepted in the chain. Surely, if the item inside the container is counterfeit and does not meet the standards imposed by the system, and does not match the qualifications and specifications of its predecessor, it would simply be rejected, and therefore be not included in the chain.
2. How the blockchain solution is better from just "any" (well designed) computer system - I wan't to emphasize the words "well designed", so the system is distributed over different parties (data is replicated between different parties having no common business or even to some "escrow" company) and everything is well secured with proper roles for users, change history logging, good authentication protocols, data encryption, cryptographic signatures, etc...
Blockchain is better since the data is easily verifiable from multiple sources and cannot easily be tampered with. Should the attackers successfully rewrote the contents of the database, something will happen on the chain causing the people and the data managers to prevent further attacks and preserve the integrity of the data. Sure, these things are already done by the most advanced computer systems, but then again they are too secured from the inside that once an attack vector is exploited by the attackers, they still aren't sure that someone is already stealing/tampering their data due to how their systems work.
This is how I view things so feel free to correct me to those with an extensive knowledge of how computer systems work.