How Can Blockchain Help Prevent Counterfeiting?

By Sumedha Bose

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that has made its mark in many industries across the market, by helping them solve various existing problems and in general increase the efficiency of the sectors.

In particular, blockchain has proved to be extremely effective against the practice of counterfeiting. The problem of fakes is one that has brutally affected many industries including pharmaceuticals, fashion, food and beverages etc. No matter what the product is, if it is profitable, it is being replicated and sold by counterfeiters.

Let’s look at the pharmaceutical industry. It has been reported that fake drugs have resulted in numerous deaths and that is a very serious consequence that can be avoided with proper regulation and monitoring. If blockchain is incorporated into the system then it will be effortless to keep track of authentic drugs and customers will be able to verify the authenticity of given drugs.

Apart from that, the benefits of blockchain in healthcare have previously been discussed on out site. Now the only thing left for pharma giants is to work with developers to come up with anti counterfeiting solutions, so that no more lives are lost due to this nasty practice of duplicating genuine products.

Moving on to the luxury goods industry. Be it your Gucci apparel, or your Michael Kors bag, there is a high chance that whatever product you are buying online, might just be a fake version of the actual product. With the rise of e-commerce, most people do their shopping online these days. So unless you are buying from the brand showroom, there is actually no guarantee if the product you are buying online is genuine or a fake.

With third party sellers, it is getting increasingly difficult for online retailers to keep track of the authenticity of products. Blockchain can help solve this problem. Customers will be able to view the serial number, point of origin, and authentication history for the product which will assist the buyer in deciding whether the product is genuine or not.

It is thus the need of the hour to encourage more and more industries to incorporate blockchain technology to fight the counterfeit market.

Sumedha Bose

Sumedha uses words as her crutch to get by in life. She takes a keen interest in debating, dancing and destroying the patriarchy in her free time.

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