10 ways Seal sets itself apart from the competition
Blockchain has already shown its potential to provide an immutable system that enhances supply chain management through the application of services like product tracking. Over the last couple of weeks, we have received a lot of questions about what differentiates our product from our competitors.
At Seal, we aim to connect brands and consumers while aspiring to stimulate the creation and protection of worthwhile products. Seal envisions a world in which genuine creation is valued. In order for society to stop the pollution of counterfeiting, a waterproof solution is needed. This is what we offer and here are some of the reasons why Seal is unique:
1. Dynamic NFC chip
We use NXP’s state-of-the-art dynamic NFC chips over static QR codes and RFID tags. NXP is the inventor and global leader of the production of NFC chips. It holds an 85% market share in the global smartphone transit-transaction market. The chips we use are virtually impossible to crack in current day computing. Our chip has 3 layers of 128 AES encryption and additional safeguards. A chip’s processing power, connectivity, networking, and sophistication is worthless unless it is covered by a security solution that provides proven end-to-end encryption across hardware and software. Our dynamic NFC chip changes state every single time it interacts, updating the correct key on the blockchain. So even if our chip got copied somehow it would be out of sync on the blockchain, causing a visible tamper on the product.
2. Full history of ownership
Products can essentially be claimed by an owner and registered on the blockchain by stating their ownership. At our meeting with ABN AMRO bank Netherlands earlier this month, ABN AMRO showed their interest in this feature for their insurance anti-fraud team. Now it’s possible to see the entire timeline of product ownership, making collectible items instantly valuable and recognizable. There is a great need for transparency in ownership. Intellectual property rights are just not enough to deal with infringement of intellectual property. We provide the brands with full tracking of their products in which they will be able to combat midnight shifting and parallel trades as well as give them insights and analytics on the manufacturing and distribution of their products.
3. Incentivizing the adoption
To hook into the former point, we have created a way to monetize products on the secondhand market. The secondhand market is a centerpiece of our proposition and is in fact, much more ambiguous and much more prone to fraudsters than the primary market. We have the most powerful set of features and services for this market. Not only do we provide proof of authenticity on a product, we enable brands to keep earning money on their products after they’ve been sold over and over again. This works particularly well with collectible items that often trade hands. Right now, brands are paying millions of dollars to deal with the problem of counterfeiting. Our system provides brands with the tools to deal with counterfeiting while actually making money instead of paying money to protect their products. This is not only valuable to the brands, but also to society as a whole since product lifecycle control is more important than ever.
4. The currency of authenticity
Our entire ecosystem relies on the Seal token. With every transaction, a piece is burned, creating scarcity while adoption and demand increases. We aim to be the currency of authenticity. The currency is optimized for transacting consumer goods. Using Seal to pay for products while directly claiming ownership provides both buyer and seller a guaranteed exchange of goods. With regular FIAT transactions, there is no way to tell with certainty whether (a) the product is genuine and (b) physical money/ banknotes are not counterfeited. The Seal tokens can be used to interact with products, to pay for services (utility), to purchase products (medium of exchange) and to interact with bApps (decentralized brand apps). BApps are custom decentralized applications that enable brands to increase customer engagement and launch personalized loyalty campaigns.
5. Stopping theft
Another problem we solve is theft. When buying items it’s not always known if the person selling it is the actual owner. Buying stolen items sold through a ‘fence’ is actually punishable in certain countries. Let’s say you want to buy a specific item and you meet with the person in question, his name is Larry. You scan the object and it says the owner is Kevin, you can instantly figure out that something is awry and opt not to buy it. You wouldn’t be able to claim the item since Kevin is still the owner. In the case of lost products, the owner can flag the item as lost using the Seal (web)App. He or she can enter a custom message that will be displayed the next time the product is scanned. This message could be a request to return the product to its rightful owner alongside a name and phone number. If an item of yours got stolen you can mark it as stolen in the Seal (web)app. The next time someone tries to claim it, our system would recognize the person scanning it. We could grab a plethora of information regarding the person who scanned it, this is scheduled later in Q4 2018/Q1 2019 since privacy laws are involved.
6. Membership IACC, React and EEA
We are the only blockchain technology company that is part of the International Anti Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC.org, USA based). The IACC is the world’s largest non-profit organization devoted solely to protecting the intellectual property and deterring counterfeiting. Among the members of the IACC are the world’s most premium brands like Apple, Nike, Burberry, Rolex and many more. One of our advisory members, Max Blom Senior, is also the initiator/Founder of React.org (EU based). React is the anti-counterfeiting network that spans 90 countries, with over 250 members, covering all areas of industry. React is experienced in dealing with almost all areas of counterfeit goods, bringing more than 25 years of fighting counterfeiting to our organization. We also are a member of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. Its membership includes Fortune 500 companies, startups, academics, blockchain experts and technology vendors. The alliance bridges the gap between corporates, academia, and developers to establish a clear path to achieving the full potential of Ethereum for both enterprise and the general public.
7. Accessibility of ERC20
The Seal token is an ERC20 token built on top of Ethereum that works in conjunction with NFC-chips. Seal aims to be the authoritative platform that millions of people can count on when acquiring new or used products. After carefully inspecting the blockchain landscape we have chosen Ethereum to launch Seal. Vitalik Buterin’s envisioned Ethereum roadmap includes sharding as a way to address the current scalability issues. On top of this, native smart contracting is an attractive reason to adopt Ethereum. Scalability of the blockchain is one of the main challenges for all active blockchains. Fortunately, our founders have extensive knowledge of the architecture of consensus algorithms and foresee possibilities to converge IOT and AI measures to increase the scalability of our blockchain. For the future, we plan to build our own blockchain. Yet at this moment Ethereum offers a secure and accessible infrastructure for our utility token. We believe that using Ethereum is the best way to maximize our adoption rate.
8. Total PLC control
For the competitors it’s all about supply chain, for us it’s all about the relation between the brands and consumers. It doesn’t stop at PoS (Point of Sale), this is where it starts for us. For society, it is also of great importance to make the stream of products that we put into the physical world more visible. We have to be able to control the life cycles of the products we create and by extension manage our footprint on natural sources. Our product analytic services make it possible to not only control product life cycles within the supply chain but enable brands to have insight into customer netnography even when the product is discontinued. In this way, brands are also able to recollect their resources after usage. This is crucial for dealing with overproduction and the creation of waste.
9. Working product
We developed a working version of the product. The Seal app is compatible with Android and iOS (iPhone 7 and up). Current features include authenticity checks, ownership transfers, and inventory management. The product is scheduled to be downloadable in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store later this year. Our business development team is actively engaging brands to onboard them. You can see a demo of our product here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j75zl4H5hQ
10. Out of love for creation
We fully believe in our vision, product and team, so much that we’ve put our money where our mouth is. The company reserve is locked for 1 year, after that it is slowly released over a period of another 3 years. Unlike some other competitors that have over 60% of the reserve with zero vesting.
Together, we increase the desirability of authentic brands, at the expense of fake brands and heartless products.
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