Amazon preps blockchain based product authenticator

Amazon has patented a system for verifiable tracking of a product through a supply chain using a distributed electronic ledger.

The US.Patent and Trademark Office approved the e-commerce giant’s filing last week. It describes using distributed ledger technology to infuse “digital trust from the first mile of an item’s supply chain to the last”.

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The system compiles data from distributors, manufacturers and shippers on an “open framework” that builds a product provenance across information silos. 

“Trust is earned. Once trust is lost, it can often be difficult to regain. As society moves more activities across borders and into the virtual world, the ability to discern the trustworthiness of an item or party can become a difficult if not impossible task,” the patent filing states. 

“Technologies for recording information continue to proliferate, but this proliferation presents a patchwork of systems and databases that can often lack transparency, coherency, referential integrity, or security, which can be factors impacting trust.”

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