Retail sector to make great blockchain strides in 2019

Blockchain tracking will this year go from nice to have, to need to have, according to ConsenSys’ Andrew Keys.

“Vigilant shoppers are going to demand transparency in regards to where their food, clothes, and products come from,” he says in a Medium post.

“Today, the supply chain process is opaque and often slow. In 2018, the US Food And Drug Administration recorded dozens of recalls for foods potentially contaminated with Salmonella, Listeria, E. Coli and even glass particulates. Retail manufacturers and luxury fashion brands use forced labour to produce the t-shirts and jeans we all buy, and often engage in environmentally damaging practices.”

Blockchain-tracked attestations of a product’s provenance and distribution ,  like diamond producer DeBeers’ Tracr platform or Lane Crawford’s Luxarity , are going to become industry standard for retail brands, he reckons.

“Platforms like Viant are at the forefront of this technology, and enable consumers to know exactly what they’re buying. Even retail giants like Walmart have taken major strides towards reinforcing supply chains with blockchain-based tracking and tracing.”

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