
Nike's plan to prevent counterfeiting by securing products using blockchain - vineetmarkan
https://www.fastscience.tv/summary/nikes-plan-prevent-counterfeiting-securing-products-using-cryptographic-tokens
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PaulBGD_
I may have missed something, but how does this prevent counterfeiting? It
seems more so like it prevents counterfeits from being sold as real shoes, but
does nothing to the number of counterfeits being produced.

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nakedlunch
As other commenters have pointed out, this only prevents counterfeit shoes
being sold as real.

If that’s the intention, it would be much simpler to just make a database and
print a code on each shoe (probably already done to some extent). Therefore
when a user wants to know if a shoe is real or counterfeit, they could use the
code on a website to find out if it was the genuine article.

That seems like it would have far more uptake and use than a cryptographic
model requiring wallets.

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vineetmarkan
If you read the use cases, a lot of their ideas revolve around marketplace. So
it should have more to do with resale or transfer of digital asset. So when
you are selling on a marketplace like EBay etc., having a valid digital token
is a proof that you are trying to sell valid Nikes.

IMO they are tracking ownership of each pair with the help of these tokens and
once the real shoe is sold the token is transferred to someone else's digital
wallet.

Putting a QR code on shoe is not really effective as it can copied/pasted on a
different shoe etc.

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compsciphd
They are tracking ownership, but why does this need to be decentralized?

what advantage does Nike gain for it being decentralized vs everything getting
a QR code and you can verify with Nike that the person you are buying it from
is the registered owner of said QR code.

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vineetmarkan
Because blockchains are great for exchange of value/transactions. Tokens can
be easily transferred and hard to re-create and safe. They can be re-generated
after each transaction and stored in a wallet.

Associating one QR code with one shoe is simply not the same thing. Nike
doesn't have to make the whole ledger public through give the nature of
blockchain, it can be assured that it has not been altered.

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AstralStorm
They don't have to with QR codes either, unless you're willing to enumerate
all possible codes in their verifier.

Also the thing is not stopping anyone from providing a wrong code. Unless
every transaction concerning their shoes is recorded on the block chain, which
it won't, and which brings privacy issues.

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gtf21
Despite the explanatory comment that was added below the line on the article,
this doesn't really seem to be a good use for Blockchain per se.

1/ as long as the translation of the physical asset to a digital asset is
vulnerable to attack, blockchain doesn't really add anything above a
centralised database. The only time this is not true is if the underlying
asset is itself cryptographic in nature.

2/ You could easily scan a QR code which looks the shoe up with Nike, and
shows you the provenance. Blockchain doesn't add anything here, and it doesn't
prevent you from owning the underlying asset (unless there's some weird
licencing contract when you buy a pair of shoes, which I doubt).

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vineetmarkan
Regarding point 1 :
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/samantharadocchia/2018/07/05/ho...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/samantharadocchia/2018/07/05/how-
non-fungible-tokens-from-physical-collectibles-are-strengthening-asset-backed-
securities/#1376468c1b2e)

Regarding point 2: I have never heard anyone tokenizing physical assets using
conventional databases. Reason is multiple people may hold part of the
value/asset, no one wants to trust anyone else.

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rdlecler1
Nike’s authorized suppliers in China will subcontract work out to non-
authorized suppliers who do not meet Nike’s labor standards. I’m afraid
blockchain isn’t more that a database.

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DrinkWater
How exactly is this preventing that fakes are being sold as authentic ?

The people who want to fake a certain shoe would just need to acquire an
authentic one, then fake the shoe AND copy the QR / NFC data attached to the
authentic one.

So if i buy this shoe and I want to check its authenticity i would scan the
tag and the system would tell me: Jordan 5 Chinese New Year, size 11, owner:
John Doe

Am I missing something ?

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vineetmarkan
When you make a purchase, you unlock the digital asset associated with that
shoe. When you sell it forward, the digital asset will be transferred forward,
provided the transactions happen on blockchain.

So you can technically sell a fake of physical, but you have to give up the
ownership of the shoe (virtual). And therefore, can't sell a fake twice.

It's a shoe version of Cryptokitties.

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goldcd
There's some fun stuff in there - but can't see any part that requires/uses
block-chain (and couldn't just be Nike's db)

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vineetmarkan
For people asking why is blockchain needed in this scenario, I have added a
comment below the article explaining why it would be far more robust than
using a QR code etc.

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rushdee1
Perhaps they can hook-up with Vechain and learn a thing or two on how to
combat counterfeiting goods on the blockchain.Just a thought though.

