The heavyweights are welcome to elaborate/contradict but the fundamental innovation of blockchain technology is its trustlessness. Know how much of your world is dependent on ISO 900x as governed by TuV or the equivalent? Inject "blockchain" into it and properly implemented, TuV is removed from the equation.

A real-world case example would be, say, insulin shipments. Maybe you can go down to CVS and buy your insulin for $250 a vial. Maybe you can call 1-800-DIABEETUS and get it for $200 a vial. Or you can get on the Internet and find an outfit called "Ashraf's Insulin & Kidney Korner" that has it for $100 a vial. But when you look into it, Ashraf is in Peshawar and insulin is sensitive to maltreatment in shipping.

The cost of buying Ashraf's Insulin will go up if you need to verify that it made it from Peshawar without hitting degrading heat along the way. But you could take one of these, get a little IoT on it and equip it with a smart contract that will only release the buyer's escrowed payment to the shipper and the seller if it makes it to the buyer's GPS without the shock and temperature values being exceeded. You could also escrow the buyer's deposit on the tracker until it gets scanned at a return depository intact. And all of a sudden you're buying Pakistani insulan at half off without having to trust (or pay extra to) Fedex, Paypal, American Express or anybody else. Realistically this means that anybody with a bike or a piper cub can contribute to getting you your insulin; it also means that anybody along the way can view the data you're collecting (assuming it's a public rather than private blockchain). Put a barcode on the box, use that magic HTC blockchain phone and anybody who wants a piece of the shipping fee undertakes the liability of the shipment for as long as its in his care and pays him a portion of the overall fee depending on how quickly and safely he gets it x much closer to its destination.

You can use a QR code to trace wine bottles without invoking the blockchain. It's kind of the fundamental backbone of the logistics industry and how they know that these other 10,000 heads of lettuce need to be pulled because these other two heads of lettuce sent someone to the hospital. Juicero was leveraging that trick; that was their justification for $8 bagfruit. If it's expired (based on the QR code) the juicer won't squeeze it. If it's been pulled for food safety (based on the QR code) the juicer won't squeeze it. Typically those codes are per-box instead of per-bottle but they could for sure be on every single bottle. Put an RFID code on it while you're at it and you can siphon off the logistics every time it's within range of a connected reader from the vintner's cellar to the supermarket's door scanners.