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LVMH reported to be launching blockchain tool for product authentication

by Camilla Rydzek

Luxury conglomerate LVMH is rumored to be launching a blockchain platform that will ensure product authenticity across brands in its portfolio.

According to a source speaking to blockchain publication CoinDesk, the platform, titled AURA, will aim to provide “proof of authenticity of luxury items and trace their origins from raw materials to point of sale and beyond to used-goods markets.”

The functionality will exist within a label’s app, as opposed to standalone. Due to launch this summer, the platform will initially be deployed by Louis Vuitton and Dior Parfum, eventually extending to other brands within the group’s portfolio. According to the same source, LVMH will also whitelabel it to competing brands.

In order to build AURA, the group has put together a full-time blockchain team, as well as working closely with blockchain software company ConsenSys and Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure.

In the future, the source adds, it will also enable participating brands to “explore protection of creative intellectual property, exclusive offers and events for each brands’ customers, as well as anti-ad fraud.”

Authentication and provenance have been a big focus for brands looking to bring more transparency to supply chains as consumer demand grows. Arket quietly trialed the technology as a storytelling tool to show the provenance of a beanie hat; Levi’s, on the other hand, recently announced a partnership with Harvard looking at blockchain for worker welfare.

 

SOURCE: thecurrentdaily.com