🛠️ Tokenizing against Thieves

GM, GM!

You know how we break down the Web3 use cases every week in 4.3 minutes:

• 😰 The challenge

• 💡 The solution

• 👀 Take away for other industries

We don't hide, like hardware store employees, we give you the answers you need.

😰 The challenge

In recent years, the number of thefts - primarily by organized groups - has increased throughout the retail industry.

The result is closed-off stores that put customers at a disadvantage.

Expensive items like premium wines or high-quality tools get locked up inside a store.

You know, in a hardware store there are a lot of fancy and pricey tools. So it’s not very convenient to lock up all the inventory. Bad experience for the customers, really difficult to handle in the day-day-operations at the store.

💡 The solution

Lowe's, one of the largest hardware stores in the U.S. is aware of this topic. The guys at the innovation lab of Lowe’s came up with a new idea: Project Unlock is the name of the proof-of-concept.

The project tackles the theft of power tools.

Each product has an RFID chip included, which links to the serial number.

When in stock, the item’s functions are set to “inoperable”.

When purchased, through the unique RFID chip and a signature transferred, the power tool is activated to use.

On the other hand, there is a blockchain-based, anonymized record of authentic product purchases.

It is publicly accessible, so anyone can see whether a serial number was purchased or stolen.

This makes it almost impossible for thieves to resell a stolen tool.

👀 Take away for other industries

I like the fact that Lowe's is using blockchain (Ethereum btw) only to have a digital twin for authenticity of sale.

They could have gone further, and also mapped the activation key over the blockchain. But they did that here with the RFID chip and a "normal" database.

And that's exactly how it must make use of technologies, exactly where it fits the use case.

The blockchain is another digital tool that also has its advantages and disadvantages. Especially for the authentication layer, it makes perfect sense to use this tech.

So, if you too want to have an anonymous tamper-proof database where all sales are transparent, a blockchain can be the right solution for you too.

But enough for today, I have to go to the hardware store right now, to pick up some Wooden beams, screws and tools. 👷‍♂️

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See you next week!