Well, this goes on to show you that a simple chip inserted in a product can contain vast amounts of information. And if the information contained in this chip is recorded on the blockchain, it becomes immutable and unforgeable:
In the same way, such chips can be added to most retail products.
It is likely that many clothes, footwear, bags, perfumes, sun glasses, cosmetics, luxury goods, medicines, and so on will benefit from a transparent authenticity verification platform that will have scale and will be mass adopted. This would allow customers to scan footwear (through a barcode or a chip inserted inside) and receive valuable information about the product. They could be interested in learning the item's true producer, the country of origin, the source of materials and labor used, when the item was produced, and possibly the recommended price from its producer. This could help remedy unethical practices such as sweatshops and child labor in some developing countries:
Moreover, famous brands such as Nike suffer from a lot of counterfeiting. And the problem is that customers are not always able to distinguish Nike's original products from imitations. A blockchain-based verification process could help solve this issue:
Nowadays, consumers have become very conscious about health, and the social impact of their actions, and they prefer consuming products that have been produced the right way.
In this context, the perspective of blockchain-powered verification and proof of authenticity becomes extremely useful:
Consumers will be able to confirm the authenticity of the products they purchase. Gradually, unethical manufacturing practices and the market for counterfeit goods could shrink significantly.
This is even more critical for cosmetics, medicines, and other healthcare products, because quality of production and adherence to standards are not only desired, but vital. A public blockchain-based registry could assure people that the medicines they buy have been produced by legit companies with solid reputations, under the right conditions and standards, and using appropriate ingredients. With such transparency, producers stand behind their products with their reputation and license to operate and can be held accountable for bringing a faulty product to the market or breaking the rules otherwise:
Such a registry would allow consumers to verify the entire life cycle of the products they buy. From a social standpoint, it would be possible to show consumers that the clothes they wear have been produced in an adequate environment and certified by organizations verifying the decency of workplace conditions. And this is really important for a large part of the consumer population in our day and age. They want to know more about the products they use and are interested in their life cycle.
Importantly, when buying fashion products or cosmetics, customers want to know when an item has been produced. They don't want to be sold goods that have been produced a year ago. So, such a type of certification would be useful from this perspective as well:
