I read an article recently from French enterprise blockchain expert Alain Broustail about the first French court decision confirming the legal value of blockchain timestamping. In that case, a company used blockchain to prove the creation date of its designs, and the court accepted that timestamp as valid evidence1. This milestone inspired me to check where we stand with blockchain in content management use cases.
One key trend I observe is how IT systems are becoming more porous, with the lines between a company’s internal and external systems blurring as organizations adopt cloud and SaaS solutions. In this context, the idea of a shared ledger intuitively fits into a world of interconnected enterprise content, offering a single source of truth across organizational boundaries.
The French court ruling validated blockchain as a tool for proving content authenticity—showing that a cryptographic hash anchored on a public ledger can serve as reliable proof of who created what and when. But beyond the courtroom, where is blockchain actually being used in content-heavy enterprise workflows?
Here are four named end-customer examples where blockchain is helping secure and certify documents in production use:
Italy’s largest highway operator uses the public Ethereum blockchain to notarize 16,000 annual tunnel and bridge inspection records. By hashing each XML inspection document and anchoring it on-chain via AWS Managed Blockchain, they ensure that these records, which support compliance with EU safety regulations, cannot be retroactively altered. This enables government inspectors to independently verify both existence and integrity of the reports2.
Mubadala Health & IBM (UAE, 2024)
In early 2024, Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Health, together with IBM, launched a live blockchain pilot to synchronize patient records securely across its network of clinics and hospitals. The platform records hash fingerprints of electronic health records, such as lab results and treatment updates, on a permissioned blockchain. This ensures real-time data consistency, verifies data authenticity from IoT devices and wearables, and allows patients to control who sees their medical information, all while maintaining confidentiality and regulatory compliance3.
De Beers launched Tracr, a blockchain-backed supply chain platform that answers the provenance of every diamond. As of 2023, more than 2.8 million stones, worth over US \$3.4 billion, are registered from mine to retail, with certificates, grading reports, and shipment logs hashed and recorded on the network4.
Regional German bank LBBW joined forces with Daimler AG, Dürr, and others to pilot trade finance transactions using Marco Polo/Corda. Key documents like electronic bills of lading, invoices, and payment commitments were hashed and stored on-chain, enhancing transparency between banks and partners5.
These examples demonstrate that blockchain isn't just a back-end innovation, it’s being applied to specific content-centric pain points: ensuring proof of integrity, enabling auditable document flows, and improving cross-party trust.
These real-world examples show that in the last five years, the projected idea of using blockchain to accelerate enterprise collaboration has indeed made tangible progress. And while much of the current focus lies in supply chain tracking and provenance, analysts expect blockchain use cases to expand significantly. In the next three to five years, we will likely see broader adoption in areas like digital identity management, electronic voting, intellectual property protection, HR document validation, and sustainability reporting. These are all scenarios where multiple parties need to agree on the authenticity and timing of critical information, making blockchain a natural fit to provide a verifiable and tamper-evident source of truth across organizational boundaries.
So what do analysts forecast for the next three to five years?