Salesforce has announced Salesforce Blockchain, a low-code platform that enables organizations to share verified, distributed data sets across a trusted network of partners and third parties, to create blockchain networks, workflows and apps.

Salesforce said that Blockchain solves the “trust gap” that has appeared as companies are required to harness and share massive amounts of data with an ever-evolving network of partners and third parties in order to deliver the experiences customers expect. It does so by delivering a distributed ledger that saves, traces and authenticates data across every partner – or node – in the network.

Organizations in all industries can leverage blockchain for a variety of use cases, such as asset tracking, credentialing and verification and authentication of goods. By combining CRM workflows with blockchain data, Salesforce said, companies can create new business processes and models that span sales, service, marketing and beyond to accelerate the speed of business.

Salesforce Blockchain is built on the open source technology of Hyperledger Sawtooth and deeply customized for Salesforce Lightning. It enables companies to easily build and maintain blockchain networks, apps and smart contracts – unique to every business – using Salesforce’s low-code capabilities. Customers can now create and share a blockchain object in the same process as any CRM data object, with clicks, not code.

They can also make blockchain data actionable through native integration with Salesforce, enabling companies to layer complex blockchain data on top of existing sales, service or marketing workflows like search queries and process automation. Companies can also run Einstein-powered artificial intelligence algorithms that integrate blockchain data into sales forecasts, predictions and more.

Salesforce said it also lowers the barrier to entry for partners, distributors and intermediaries to leverage Salesforce Blockchain. Companies can pull in APIs, pre-built apps and integrate any existing blockchains with Salesforce. They can also easily interact with and add third parties to their blockchain with a few clicks and a simple authentication, to create trust networks.

One of the customers currently using Salesforce Blockchain is Arizona State University, which is using it to design and create an educational network that enables universities to verify and securely share information. This network will expand the ability for universities and colleges to serve learners, for example, by saving student transcripts and accomplishments into a Learner Trust Record on unified ledger, a tool that will create a record of the entirety of a learner’s accomplishments. With Salesforce Blockchain, Arizona State University is seeking to give ownership and control of learner records to the learners themselves, while significantly reducing friction between institutions and allowing them to provide faster and more intelligent services to students.

“With Salesforce Blockchain, we expect that this educational trust network will allow us to better serve our diverse set of undergraduate and graduate student learners,” said Kent Hopkins, vice president of Enrollment Services at Arizona State University. “This network has the potential to be a game changer for integrated, seamless learning – increasing transparency of student achievements and ultimately making the exchange process of academic records easier for both learners and institutions.”