LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the owners of luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, and Bvlgari, are said to be launching their own blockchain system for proving the authenticity of their products, according to a report from Coindesk. The website, citing “two people familiar with the project”, claims that the conglomerate will utilize Quorum, the permissioned version of the Ethereum blockchain already pegged as the foundation of the forthcoming JPM Coin, to create an in-house system that will help verify the authenticity of high-end items.
Bad News for VeChain?
LVMH has allegedly been working on the system, codenamed AURA, in secret for over a year and will not only allow anyone to check whether an item is genuine, but will be able to track its progress through the supply chain – from raw materials to finished product. None of the agencies involved have commented on the claims, but seeing as some LVMH brands have working with the VeChain project since 2017, there has clearly been ample opportunity for them to learn about the benefits of blockchain and how it can be implemented. The news will come as a blow to VeChain, although this didn’t seem to affect the price of the token, and they still have working partnerships with other famous names such as H&M, DNV GL, and BMW.
Blockchain is the Perfect Remedy
Supply chain management and product authenticity are areas that blockchain was almost designed to assist with. Many food producers and supermarkets are already using it to ensure the origins of their products. With counterfeiting being such a huge problem in the luxury world, the ability for anyone to be able to verify whether a product is original or not, simply by scanning a QR code. This would be a massive boost for the companies that constantly fall victim to the practice, which is estimated to cost $1.8 trillion per year.
If LVMH are indeed developing their own in-house system, or if they end up using a third-party like VeChain, this would be a huge feather in the cap of blockchain and would represent another rung up the ladder of acceptance within the business community and the public.
