Seagate, the data storage giant has extended its blockchain work intended to gauge the fraud-fighting potential of the technology. 

Following on, from a ‘proof-of-concept’ that took off in 2018 in partnership with IBM as cited from Forbes, there is a  blockchain-based product tracking trial  going on with Seagate to the pilot stage to asses how scalable a possible live platform could be actually.
 
Seagate’s research group managing technologist of data security, Manuel Offenberg, told Forbes that, the firm has already been given approval despite the pilot yet to be launched.

Products which are sent via several steps to the customer are being monitored through the hard- drive tracking blockchain. The project which is for the trial is also IBM as a major consumer of Seagate products. 

Any product are also tracked back to Seagate when it's returned. By so doing, this would help ensure that counterfeit drives are not sent back in place of the genuine article.
 

Secondly it helps to verify that any drive returned for defects or other reasons have undergone a possible “certified erase” process to remove any user data.

A use case is Europe under the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation .
According to Offenberg,  "if we can prove that the drive was cryptographically erased, when a drive … comes back as part of its returns process and therefore, the information is no longer on the device, then, looking from a risk perspective, this reverse supply chain can treat that device differently,” 

 Meanwhile the firm’s products already have a QR code-based brand protection tag and it doesn’t utilize blockchain. Situation could still change anyway,  If the supply chain pilot goes well, and depending on other factors too.

 Credits: Daniel Palmer