Metaverse Blockchain Spotlights: Luxchain and ParcelX

At Metaverse, we are pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology and incubating exciting new projects into our ecosystem. Providing Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions to our partners to promote blockchain applications is at the core of what we do. Today, we want to highlight two projects that solve existing problems in the second hand luxury goods market and the cross-border delivery industry.

Luxchain

Luxchain is a blockchain solution that solves the problem of trust in the second hand luxury goods market. In second hand markets and on e-commerce platforms, buyers are often unsure if what they are buying is authentic. As many luxury goods lie in closets, unused and unsold, the lack of trust between buyers and sellers means that a huge potential market opportunity is wasted away. The counterfeit luxury goods market value is estimated at $450 billion and growing, which makes this industry prime for exploitation. After we solve the trust issue, buyers and sellers need to agree on a price, which is another problem that can derail the goods exchanging hands. At what price will the buyer and seller agree to execute the transaction? Luxchain has created the world’s first Global Luxury Price Index powered by AI that can solve this problem by tracking prices from over 20 countries, providing the most up to date data for both merchants and consumers.

How does Luxchain use Metaverse technology?

Luxchain incorporates technology from Metaverse by using Digital Identities, Digital Assets, and Oracles (value intermediaries). Essentially each buyer and retailer will have a digital identity, and each luxury good will be a digital asset. Oracles will provide verification services to ensure that the second hand good is authentic. Specifically, each user will need to pass KYC (Know-Your-Customer) protocol and input his or her personal information to be officially verified. This personal information will be stored on a side chain, so only the digital identity will be revealed on the Metaverse public blockchain. Let us take a second hand LV bag as an example to go through how the whole process works.

A LV bag’s original owner wants to sell her bag on the second hand market. For her bag to be officially recognized as a digital asset, she needs to take multiple photos to upload onto Luxchain’s portal. Luxchain will have a template on what angles the photos need to be in, to allow the Oracles to verify the authenticity of the bag. Once the bag is verified, it becomes a digital asset and can be put onto e-commerce marketplaces. Each luxury good will have detailed specifications and a proof of authenticity. An interested buyer will browse the catalog of available luxury goods, and if she is interested in buying the LV bag, she can make the purchase through the e-commerce platform knowing that the bag is authentic. Throughout this process, Digital Identity A (the seller) goes through Oracles (verifiers) to ensure that her LV bag (the digital asset) is put on the e-commerce site, so Digital Identity B (the buyer) can make the purchase with ease of mind.

Now let us take a look at ParcelX, another blockchain solution developed using Metaverse technology, to see how ParcelX aims to transform the global cross-border delivery industry.

ParcelX

ParcelX aims to provide a globalized solution for cross-border parcel deliveries. Currently, the international shipping industry faces a few problems such as lack of trust, inefficiency, and data intransparency. Lack of trust is a key challenge for transportation and logistics companies. Consumers and e-commerce clients have limited choices when they choose delivery service providers. They either overpay large companies with in-house infrastructure to ensure high quality delivery, or accept inferior delivery services from scattered service providers that have data gaps and inconsistent services. Price transparency is also an issue facing many consumers. Often when a consumer places an international order, companies unnecessarily upcharge delivery fees. Since consumers have limited choices, logistics companies can band together to form oligopolies, thus hurting the consumer.

High costs are also due to aging IT infrastructure and a lack of data digitization. Without the ability to trace data from disparate sources, service providers suffer from inefficiency in redundant operations such as re-weighing and re-labeling parcels. These all lead to unnecessary delays and costs, which ultimately harm not just the consumer, but also the enterprise in terms of operating inefficiency. ParcelX will solve these issues using technology from the Metaverse blockchain to provide a cost efficient and reliable solution for both logistics service providers and the end consumer.

How does ParcelX use Metaverse technology?

With the cross-border parcel delivery business continuing to grow, companies need efficient and effective solutions to the above problems. The Chinese cross-border delivery industry is projected to reach $1.32 trillion in 2018, with the majority of shoppers born in the 1980’s and 1990’s. People in this age bracket tend to be early adopters of technology that can benefit their lives. Here is how Metaverse blockchain technology can fundamentally change the parcel delivery industry as we know it.

Suppose Person A buys a good from an international e-commerce site. E-retailer B will start the shipping process after Person A has paid the shipping fee with GPX, ParcelX’s token. The e-retailer will then assign the parcel a QR Code, and this parcel becomes a digital asset that can be tracked throughout the whole delivery process on the Metaverse blockchain. The local overseas delivery man will then get the parcel from the e-retailer, driving the delivery van to drop off the parcel at the warehouse to prepare for international shipping. The delivery man is assigned a digital identity, while the warehouse is an oracle, a value intermediary that verifies the delivery man has dropped off the parcel.

Next, the parcel will clear overseas customs. The overseas customs office can be another oracle that ensures the digital asset, the parcel, is cleared correctly with the proper forms. Once the parcel has cleared overseas customs, a shipping and freight company will make the cross-border shipment. The shipping and freight company is essentially another oracle, and in this situation, the oracle would most likely be a large international shipping company with a well-established reputation, so the digital identities Person A and e-retailer B can trust the shipment will be delivered on time in the proper condition.

Once the parcel enters the country of Person A, the logistics company will drop off the box at the local port, which then conducts local customs clearance. As similarly described above, the local delivery agency and the local customs office are oracles, verifiers who ensure the parcel gets handed off to the next entity to handle the next step of the delivery. Once the parcel clears local customs, a local logistics service provider will ship the parcel to Person A. At this point, Person A will acknowledge receipt of the parcel by scanning the QR Code, thus confirming the entire shipment process.

Throughout this parcel delivery flow, multiple digital identities and oracles are involved to ensure that the parcel, the digital asset, gets delivered to the right person in the proper manner. Each handoff or transaction is recorded on the Metaverse blockchain, which provides a secure and immutable ledger for each step of the shipping process. With data that is open and transparent, both Person A and e-retailer B can track each step of the delivery, ensuring that the parcel is delivered in the most efficient and cost effective way possible, a win-win situation for all parties.

As shown in the above Luxchain and ParcelX examples, Metaverse provides base layer infrastructure Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions to varying industries. Both Luxchain and ParcelX are developing solutions to real world problems, and we are incredibly excited about the future ahead.

For more information on Luxchain, visit their website here.

For more information on ParcelX, visit their website here.

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