(LINFINITY Roundtable Discussion in Bangkok, Thailand)
“The success of blockchain commercialisation requires multi-party cooperation, and we need more innovations, ideas and insights to make this happen.” Anndy Lian, CEO of LINFINITY, said in LINFINITY’s roundtable discussion in Bangkok, Thailand. This roundtable discussion with a theme of “Effectively Embrace the Blockchain Technology with Traditional Business”, brought together a number of industry experts and entrepreneurs, including notable executives from multinational corporations, monetary funds and federations, such as Panasonic, Asian Productivity Organization (APO), Management System Certification Institute (Thailand) (MASCI), SANYO, Ccare and Big Communication. A series of in-depth discussions were conducted on future commercialisation trends of blockchain.
(Anndy Lian and the guests)
Building A Blockchain-based Trusted Ecosystem
Ccare, a reputed leading company in the manufacturing of Skin Care Products with Vitamin C and Natural Extract concept, showcases its dedication to producing top-quality skin care products with minimal impact on nature. Mr. Supakchai Kiatanant, owner of Ccare expressed his concerns over the glaring issue of counterfeiting products within the cosmetics industry, he concluded by expressing hope that blockchain technology can help to significantly mitigate issues which arise from counterfeiting operations, and therefore protect both Ccare and other companies’ brand image.
As the cosmetics industry supply chain is comprised of a number of complex processes, including the procurement of raw materials, manufacturing, retailing and etc., the continuous production of fake goods within the industry becomes common, and often disastrous in terms of building a company brand. Mr. Lian asserted that the use of decentralised blockchain technology should allow for each data node in the supply chain to be authenticated, helping to ensure product genuineness. Blockchain’s distributed structure ensures that data is nearly impossible to fabricate or tamper with, and its inherent traceability ensures data transparency at every level of the system. Mr. Lian further explained that, in terms of its application to the cosmetics industry, blockchain can provide anti-counterfeiting traceability to all retail products in two significant ways, thus overcoming the pain points that result from product counterfeiting that cannot be solved through traditional methods.
The first step, according to Mr. Lian, is to build a “public ledger” of company data at the very start of business, and to ensure it is well-maintained. Far-removed from traditional anti-counterfeiting methods, blockchain removes individual dependency upon any organisation involved in the supply chain by substituting it with its unique decentralised storage model; all information is publicly recorded in the “public ledger”, and is continually updated by all areas which also contain a copy of the ledger to ensure that they all match up with each other – meaning, ultimately, that data stored within the public ledger cannot be tampered with.
In short, from raw material procurement, to production and processing, to sales and after-sales service, all information is recorded accurately and permanently in the blockchain, and can be traced by any organisation or individual. This allows for company transparency at all levels, which helps to both tackle counterfeiting within the industry as a whole, and increase business trust to the end consumer.
The second step to ensure counterfeiting becomes a distant memory is to trace real-time commodity information. In essence, traceability is the process of information transmission, and its foundation is the mode of streamlined production and circulation in the retail market. Before a commodity goes to a customer, it has to go through a number of manufacturing, stock-checking and auditing processes, with a corresponding information flow that is updated with every change of time and place – from initial manufacture to final delivery. Blockchain technology precisely caters to this feature: simply upload the individual commodity data into a block, use a cryptographic algorithm to generate a private key that prevents data tampering, and add a time stamp to connect each block in a chronological order so as to form a chain. The final result is that all information in the blockchain relating to any individual product can be traced in real time. Thus, no false information can enter the blockchain, and therefore no counterfeits can be made from deliberately tampering with information.
(Anndy introduces LINFINITY blockchain based anti-counterfeiting solution to guests)
In addition, any information uploaded enjoys the essential characteristics of blockchain technology, including, to some degree, legal validity. In August, the Supreme People’s Court of The People’s Republic of China issued the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on several issues concerning the trial of cases by Internet Court, which shall come into effect on September 7, 2018, and stated that if the electronic data submitted by the parties can be proved authentic by evidence collection, fixed and tamper-proof technical means, such as electronic signature, trusted time stamp, hash value check, blockchain, etc., or certificated by electronic evidence collection and storage platform, then it should be confirmed by the Internet Court. This is the first time that China has legally confirmed technical means such as trusted time stamps and blockchain in the form of judicial interpretation. This will be a “trusted ecosystem” built by merchants and consumers to form a brand consensus and provide users with a significantly better user experience.
LINFINITY, with its leading blockchain technology and innovative business operation model, has launched pilot projects involving companies in tobacco, healthcare, logistics, information, finance, law, and so on, with a number of phased milestones already achieved. In Oct 2018, LINFINITY completed its DAPP beta 1.0 and deliver to Scientific Tradition, a Singapore Lingzhi healthcare product producer for further debugging.
(LINFINITY CEO Anndy Lian hosts the roundtable discussion)
‘Blockchainization’ is Not Complicated
Dr. Chavatip Chindavijak, senior vice president of Sustainable Development Services Department at MASIC, a subsidiary of the Alsubeaei family business with nearly a hundred years of history, mentioned in the discussion: “Since its inception, blockchain has been facing a mixed dilemma, all of which stems from the fact that we have not yet had a clear understanding of blockchain technology, and it is even less clear where to proceed to properly using blockchain technology and leverage its value to serve enterprise. Movement away from traditional business models to ‘blockchainization’ will be a fairly complicated process.”
(Dr. Chavatip Chindavijak, senior vice president of Sustainable Development Services Department at MASIC( middle))
Mr. Lian responded to Dr. Chindavijak that the concept of ‘blockchainization’ is, in itself, uncomplicated. Due to the decentralisation and smart contract mechanisms as core tenets of blockchain technology, enterprises will not need to upload information of the whole of every business process, but only package and upload necessary information according to their own needs. LINFINITY provides two ways to assist enterprise users in their business applications of blockchain: the first is that if the other party does not currently have its own blockchain, LINFINITY will guide the enterprise user to upload relevant information until the enterprise can run it independently, or cooperate with the enterprise to build a blockchain-based supply chain ecosystem; the second approach is that, if the other party does have its own blockchain, LINFINITY will graft enterprise information on the chain to LINFINITY’s own blockchain for ease-of-use to the other party. Through these, LINFINITY can help enterprises to quickly achieve ‘blockchainization’.
In response to a question from a representative from Big Communication on how to charge users for these services, Mr. Lian suggested charging by monthly usage or joint venture.
Blockchain Commercialization Requires Multi-Party Cooperation
Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn, Secretary-General of the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), raised the point that blockchain commercialisation requires an understanding of the demands of the market at any given time. He continued: “LINFINITY’s anti-counterfeiting traceability technology and business logic coincide with APO’s need to increase productivity with new technologies, and we look forward that LINFINITY can use this new technology to empower productivity.”
(Dr.Santhi Kanoktanaporn,Secretary-General of APO(left))
During the meeting, Mr. Lian expressed his gratitude to Dr. Sumit Champrasit, honorary chairman of Panasonic for attending the meeting. Panasonic has been committed to the research and development of various high technologies and methods to produce high-quality products that can achieve energy conservation and high efficiency, and to improve human life through technology.
(Dr. Sumit Champrasit, honorary chairman of Panasonic(left))
However, a single flower does not make a spring. Mr. Lian expressed that blockchain commercialisation requires multi-party cooperation. LINFINITY is actively working with more large, medium and small-sized multinational enterprises, such as Panasonic, APO, SANYA and MASCI, and bringing them together to jointly use blockchain technology to drive the industry forward.
For more information about LINFINITY and their future activities, please visit www.linfinity.io or contact [email protected].