One of the key functions of the blockchain is the ability to mark data permanently. This immutability has primarily been used to record currency transactional data, but this ability can theoretically be extended to permanently record other secondary information. It is this ability that holds promise for the blockchain to be an all-encompassing solution for verification of various assets.
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Devery.io is building a protocol layer above Ethereum to enable third party developers to easily build product verification services on the Ethereum blockchain through APIs. Further, the Devery Protocol connects provenance systems into one central hub. The current provenance landscape is fragmented, and Devery aims to unify them into one central look-up for consumers.
There are various real world use cases that would benefit from this solution. Specifically, governments and private corporations today run registries of assets such as properties, vehicles, commodities and even individual identities. These registries enable verification of authenticity and ownership of these assets. This not just ensures provenance but also allows cases of ownership contention and theft to be solved.
However, scaling these solutions to smaller items have thus far been impractical, both due to cost and the challenges associated with the mass adoption of a single standard. Today, every product sold has a barcode associated to its product range. This generally works well but as is not specific to individual products, presents a challenge to brands producing products that need to be identified and tracked to the granularity of individual products. The are various workarounds to this - for example, all mobile phones have a unique code called IMEI that serves as an identifier.
The challenge however has been to developing an open standard that is cheap and effective for a range of industries, from phones, to electronics to cosmetics, shoes, clothes and even produce. A blockchain solution holds promise of reducing the cost of such registries tenfold, and enabling a single source of verification for all products produced worldwide.
It is this magnitude-order reduction in cost that creates the ability to have registries of products that can be used to track ownership and perform verification of individual products whether it is a luxury watch or just a small pen. Just like how the barcode process sped up the retail chain for product tracking (albeit only at a product-range level), a cost-effective blockchain-based solution heralds the promise to be able to do the same to a level individual products.
Various teams have now taken on the challenge in implementing the blockchain solution to specific use-cases (such as the pharmaceutical industry). Each of these teams are developing proprietary solutions that work in their targeted fields. The challenge to mass adoption however is the ability for anyone to adopt this technology to build a solution that works for them. This then, is the core challenge that the Devery team set out to solve. Importantly, enabling more solutions that will utilize the blockchain means making it easy, almost invisible for developers who may not be comfortable with the blockchain. An abstraction layer if you must.
Devery’s product verification protocol will enable any developer to access marking functions of the blockchain via api calls. The protocol will be fueled by the EVE tokens. This will pay for the cost of markings as well as be a source of funding for the maintenance of these applications.
Devery’s goal is developing the protocol to enable anyone to provide verification services. This allows a market for different verifiers that specialize in particular industries, as opposed to one verifier that controls the marking process. There are several that have chosen to use a proprietary model. These projects have patented chips and/or require their particular teams to facilitate the tracking process. Devery protocol users do not require permission to utilize the protocol. Anyone can build a verification application on our protocol and earn fees doing so. This allows applications to be tailored for the special needs of particular industries as opposed to a one size fits all approach.
Visit https://devery.io for more information.
