Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/846769
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 JULY 2017 Business & Finance VII looking to trade in stolen goods. 4. Proof of ownership and resale As noted above the blockchain can be used to record the owner of purchased goods. This acts as a means of proof of ownership, which can't be tampered with. Everledger uses the blockchain to track dia- monds, from the mine to the end customer. This permanent ledger ensures that dia- monds are certified and reduces the risk of forgery of documents. It can also prove who bought a specific diamond and be securely updated if that diamond is then sold on to someone else. Insurance companies can also make use of the verification data in the case of disputes, loss or theft. 5. Warranties Blockchain can help retail with ambitions to go paperless by helping manage product warranties digitally. Warranteer is already working with brands like ASUS, LG, GoPro, and HiSense to do just that. Rather than relying on paper, which can easily be misplaced, Warranteer offers cus- tomers a digital warranty wallet. They can store all of their warranties in the block- chain, keep them up-to-date in real-time and easily transfer them from one provider to another if desired. All parties are privy to the same information which helps reduce any disputes. This particularly makes sense for expensive or electronics purchases, which are typically the sort of items that may require some aftercare. 6. Loyalty Blockchain could also revolutionise loyalty systems by helping track points collected by customers. Any additions or subtractions would be quickly updated in real-time, making these programmes work better for shoppers. A loyalty warranty on the blockchain could also let customers view all of their loyalty information in one place, from all retailers. Loyyal is leading the blockchain loy- alty charge. Its system can even deal with multi-brand loyalty schemes, such as airline and bank co-rewards. Blockchain can help counter the fragmentation that often goes hand-in-hand with loyalty. Another way the blockchain could impact loyalty is retail is its ability to track total buying habits. At present retailers only really have an insight into how a customer is shopping with their brand, but what if they could see all sales information? Would this help them target customers with more personalised offers? 7. Payments and e-commerce Given blockchain's in-roads in the finance sector and its history with Bitcoin, tracking of payments is perhaps the most obvi- ous use of all. E-commerce could also be impacted as digital currencies like Bitcoin become more widely used. Large purchases like cars and houses can be recorded and verified as a matter of official record. As with luxury products, blockchain can help reduce the trade in stolen vehicles as any subsequent transac- tions will be identified. In-store purchases could be assigned digital receipts, which will not only give customers and retailers a simpler way of dealing with returns and refunds, but could also help the industry become paperless. Customers can also get a better overview of their spending habits with all receipts in one place. When will all this happen? The short answer is it's already happen- ing. While blockchain has been becoming more widely recognised over the last nine years, a number of recent developments suggest retail is now pricking up its ears. At the National Retail Federation show in January Microsoft demonstrated its block- chain tech for creating smart contracts in retail. Developed in partnership with Mojix, the system is based on Microsoft's Azure Blockchain-as-a-service. Smart contracts are self-executing and automati- cally implement agreed terms – these could be temperature restrictions, timeframe for delivery, date of picking etc. The terms can be ticked off as being met at each stage of the supply chain. This ensures that the contract is being fully complied with. These contracts could help retail's supply chains gets smarter, saving time and money. At the end of last year IBM also turned to blockchain to improve supply chain opera- tions. The company partnered with China's Tsinghua University to help Wal-Mart on a pilot project to improve the tracking of the pork from China that it sells in its stores. The aim is to improve food safety by recording all information about the people and steps involved in bringing the products to store. Just a few months ago IBM announced another blockchain project in China. Launched in April, the Yijian Blockchain Technology Application System was devel- oped in partnership with Hejia, the Chinese supply chain company. Its focus is to track pharmaceutical drugs in throughout the supply chain. The use of blockchain helps address some of the issues in the Chinese market, such as an inefficient credit system. Blockchain is an innovation that is being taken seriously. These pilots and experi- ments are only the beginning. If retailers, and the wider world, start to see the ben- efits then the blockchain revolution is likely to ramp up massively. Make sure you're ready for it. ging the future of retail While blockchain has been becoming more widely recognised over the last nine years, a number of recent developments suggest retail is now pricking up its ears... Blockchain is an innovation that is being taken seriously.