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It was a clear day when Camila finally received the package that she and her little daughter Sophia had been waiting for: the new children’s car seat and stroller by the trusted brand Doona.  The box had just arrived in time for the short ride to Sophia’s grandparents, in Andover, M.A..

On her driveway, Camila started to take the seat out of the box, ready to put it in her car. Fortunately, her neighbor noticed the box, came over, and showed Camila the news feed on her phone: “Fake and dangerous kids products are turning up for sale on amazon” it read! They scrolled down a bit: this first picture of the article showed a fake Doona Car seat and stroller!

Today, counterfeiting is the largest criminal business in the world.  And due the ease and convenience of e-commerce (online shopping), the percentage of counterfeit products reached a staggering  3.6 %, according to international customs authorities. Pharmaceuticals, luxury brands, quality tools, even food is counterfeited and sold on a large scale. Image: U.S. Customs Seized Counterfeit Goods Worth $1.5 Billion in 2019
Source: America Security Today 

Solid trust needs solid verification

Our regular life, including regular business-transactions and the regular internet is built on “trust”. You “trust” that the product you ordered online is real. You “trust” that a promise someone makes is true. Trust is the ultimate foundation of any relationship!

Trust is great. But if something VERY IMPORTANT happens, you’d better get a large group of people to witness this event. The reason is simple: witnesses can verify! Image: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in a “He said – she said” court battle.
Source: BBC

Without a witness it’s just your word against the word of the other. But what if the witness lies? The answer is simple: The more witnesses you have, the better. Image: Millions of people witnessed the royal wedding. Millions can verify what happened.
Source: Insider

For many cultures and many generations, a wedding is one of the MOST IMPORTANT events in the life of a woman and a man.  That’s why weddings are not done in private, with no one present and without any witnesses. Weddings are confirmed by an “official” (often a religious cleric and/or government employee) AND: Weddings are celebrated in public! In many cultures the public ceremony of the wedding is the most important part. Many cultures have a simple wedding-formula:  the “bigger” the better. Why? 

Yes, it’s a “bigger” party.
Yes, it’s a “bigger” reason to come together.
But it also VERIFIES the act “bigger”.
The sheer number of people witnessing the event make counterfeiting or lying about the event nearly impossible.
Everybody sees the wedding.
Everyone can verify: yes X and Y got married.

The power of verified commerce

Verified-commerce is just like a wedding with millions of people witnessing each step along the way. Traditional e-commerce is based on simple “trust”: Verified commerce (v-commerce) goes many steps further. The core formula of v-commerce is: “Don’t trust – verify”.

V-commerce verifies products on the most secure system available today: the blockchain. Think of the blockchain as a place of millions and millions of witnesses. In this case, the witnesses are millions of computers – all over the world. When a product is manufactured, the v-commerce company sends the producer of this product a registered, limited and secured digital chip. If you make 500 luxury bags, you will get 500 digital chips. Not 505. The limited number of physical products (the actual luxury bags produced)  is matched with the identical limited number of “digital twins” on the blockchain. This process is witnessed by millions of computers. When the “physical product” is sold to someone, the “digital twin of the product” is also notified and “moves ownership” to the new owner. No matter if the point of sale is online of offline, the unique digital chip is notified, and millions of computers move the digital twin on the blockchain. A digital twin is created for every original. If you have 500 originals, it is impossible to create 501 digital twins. This makes counterfeiting impossible. Image: Dietmar Dahmen on stage: “Don’t trust – verify”.

Let’s summarize

• Traditional e-commerce is solely based on trust. That’s why counterfeits are a real problem.
• Modern v-commerce is based on verifiable trust. This makes counterfeits impossible.
• V-commerce verifies every unique real-world transaction with it’s unique digital twin.
• This digital twin is verified by millions of computers.
• Every change of ownership is transparent, digitally registered and verifiable.

How to secure premium products with a digital twin on the blockchain?