PwC’s incubation program to promote blockchain-based business in Asia last month welcomed the Singapore-based company VeChain to its ranks. VeChain, a subsidiary of the Shanghai-based bitcoin behemoth BitSE, is already putting its anti-counterfeiting technology to good use for multiple clients in the luxury apparel and handbags, wine importers, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and logistics industries. RFID tags, QR codes, NFC chips, and other IDs combine with the Ethereum-based ledger to offer transparency and verification throughout the supply chain process. Their early subscribers are in Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. Read More >>
BLOCK INTEL’S TAKE: The partnership with PwC is a sign of the good things to come for VeChain and its parent company, BitSE. Although focused on supply chain efficacy specific to anti-counterfeiting, VeChain’s applicability is likely to have a broader reach, especially since they already have a number of businesses using their services, which provides product feedback and capital. We imagine these guys are not exactly hurting for capital either–BitSE in summer 2016 received their first round of funding from Fenbushi Capital, a firm in Shanghai that only invests in blockchain startups. Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin is a General Partner at Fenbushi.
The need for improved counterfeiting controls in the fashion and pharmaceutical industries, for example, makes this a practical endeavor and a good segue for these industries into distributed ledger technology. It doesn’t hurt that BitSE’s co-founder, Sunny Lu previously worked as the chief information officer at Louis Vuitton, offering a bridge between industries that need one another but may not always know where to start the conversation.