The solution will include an intuitive in-browser UI through which the producer can enter a number of details about their products. Some fields in the form will be mandatory (for example, time and location of production) and common fields will be handled as dropdown suggestions (for example, lot number). The form will also contain the possibility of creating custom fields.
Data added in this way will be “compressed” in a unique QR Code, to be added to the product in the physical world. This QR Code will accompany the product in its journey to the consumer, who, in turn, will be able to retrieve product information by scanning the QR Code.
During the process of QR Code creation, the product information will be included as metadata in a transaction which will be registered on Cardano’s Blockchain. Only users with the necessary NFT included in the transaction will be able to submit data relevant to their product. This represents both a “Quality Seal” and an anti-counterfeit measure (please see below in Foreseen challenges).
When the consumer retrieves the QR Code information, they will be able to share this information with their social network, increasing product visibility at no cost to the producer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A typical use case scenario could see Ann, who produces an organic-certified wine, and Joe, one of her customers.
Benefit - Increased direct visibility and time saving
Ann currently uses her website and labels to show Joe that her wine is organic. Joe verifies this information by contacting the certifying authority, which is time-consuming and heavily centralized.
In our solution the information is publicly visible on a blockchain. Joe can see it directly, saving time, and Ann can communicate important information directly to Joe. 👍
Benefit - safety of product data
Product certifications (where applicable) can still come from competent authorities, but Ann can show them directly to her customers.
Further, Joe can rest assured that product information registered on Cardano’s blockchain will be safe, nearly-impossible to hack or counterfeit and immutable through time. ⬅️
Benefit - product story-telling on the blockchain at a very low cost
Ann can add a lot more information about her product. Doing so on a website (hers or that of a consortium she is part of) requires a lot of investment in time and money.
With our solution, Ann’s story can be written on a safe, immutable and counterfeit-resistant digital database (the blockchain). All this at extremely low costs (the systems are already in place).
At this stage of the project the product will come at no cost to Ann, who is willing to test it with us. Ann will have a seed from us to start testing, but will need her own ADA to cover the cost of Cardano transactions going forward (a transaction on the Cardano blockchain costs roughly 0.17 ADA).
We plan to integrate our solution with most dApp connected ADA wallets. The in-browser wallet is where Ann will be storing her ADA and NFTs to record transactions on chain.
This is beneficial to Joe as well, because a blockchain-verified story is immutable and safe through time. This is in contrast to websites, which can be hacked, changed and have no version history.
Benefit - tracing in space and time
The above story-tracking has another benefit for Ann and her relationship with Joe: her wine bottles can be followed in space and time.
If Joe has a concern about one of her bottles, she can know in real-time which one, where it was purchased and when.
This makes Ann's life a lot easier if she needs to recall a product, compared to today's systems. This makes Joe happier too, because he can get a quick response to his issue, directly from Ann. 😀
Benefit - incentivize customers to engage with your products
Joe is not very keen to scan QR Codes. Today, there is little Ann can do to resolve this issue.
On Cardano, Ann can think of creative ways to incentivize Joe to do so: for example by offering Joe a collectible NFT, which could be specific to the vintage of one of her wines. Joe could trade these NFTs with his friends or exchange them for ADA on Cardano. He could also choose to try to collect them all, and become more affectionate to Ann's wines. ❤️
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
[1] Costs, Benefits and Business Value of Traceability: A Literature Review
[2] Consumer valuation of blockchain traceability for beef in the United States
<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aepp.13157>
Increasing the accessibility of blockchain solutions for traceability and supply chain management via web3 interfaces will help scale these solutions and increase adoption.
This proposal makes direct use of recent advances in Cardano, namely wallet dApp integration and smart contracts, to achieve this goal.
Cardano is an open system, where everyone is free to read and write (but not delete) data. This much freedom may be a problem if we want to be sure the data we read are generated from a trusted source (the Business owner in this case).
The solution we propose is to only consider metadata sent in a transaction containing an NFT (unique). This step will identify the metadata as being generated by someone who is allowed to do so.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adoption of blockchain technology at ground level may be faced with some resistance by the prospective client. This may be particularly true for people who have no experience of blockchain or associate blockchains to speculative cryptocurrency markets.
Our solution to this potential issue lies in a carefully prepared marketing toolkit. In consultation with expert colleagues at Aptissio, we have determined that the product presentation should be clear but not exceedingly technical. Jargon should be avoided where possible, and terminology that may be perceived as negative or too complex replaced with more accessible terms. For example “cryptocurrency” can be “digital money” and “blockchain” can be “immutable digital ledger”.