Blockchain-based consumer goods tracking solution wins investment in South Korea

The provincial government in Chungcheonbook-do, western South Korea, announced today they they would support the development of a blockchain-based consumer goods tracking platform. The platform is designed to prevent fraud in the consumer goods industry.

The project was selected by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy as part of its Industrial Innovation Foundation contest which set out to select various solutions for industry and business growth. The project is hosted by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and Inha University.

The project will about $10 million of investments from various sources. Of those funds, about $6.7 million will be from national government purses, $2.6k will be from provincial government pools, and the rest will be from private investments. The project’s development and promotion period will continue for three years starting this year.

The platform uses blockchain technology to record the distribution process starting from a product’s first shipment all the way to the consumer’s purchase. The blockchain solution prevents data forgery after entry and all but eliminates the possibility of falsification. Therefore, consumers will be able to check the product’s shipping history such as which country or which factory a product came from in addition to the other points at which it may have stopped on its way to the outlet for purchase.

For full functionality, it will require the implementation of a QR code and scanning system. An automated device will scan each QR code and store the data of its whereabouts via blockchain. This solution may also prevent damage to goods.

Further Applications

South Korea and China are well-known for their knock-off brands of luxury goods such as Louis Vuitton and Rolex. It is common to hawkers set up shop along wide walkways on busy streets to sell their luxury facsimiles for a fraction of the price that they would otherwise be. As a result, consumers have a reason to worry about whether the luxury goods they have purchased even in legitimate stores is genuine.

The new blockchain platform could help law enforcement and manufacturers identify trusted outlets of genuine products which would weed out the ones selling fraudulent goods.

Other Government Support

The Korean government has been on something of a spending spree since 2019 in regard to investments in blockchain-based services. The Ministry of Science and Technology leads the way with investments in DID solutions and blockchain development training courses. They have also pledged up to $110 million in investments to blockchain startups over the next few years.

The South Gyeongsang provincial government has also shown concerted commitment to blockchain solution development for government services such as with DID in collaboration with Raonsecure.

The announcement today regarding another blockchain solution for development in South Korea again conspicuously left out any mention of the use of cryptocurrency. The Korean government has become decidedly harsh towards companies that choose to publicize their use of cryptocurrency in their day-to-day operations due to the speculative aspect of the assets.

Tech startups across the country are urged to integrate blockchain technology into their solutions in some way to try to find new use cases and possibilities for the burgeoning technology that many expect to lead the tech industry into the 4th industrial revolution.

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