SEAL: PUTTING A STOP TO COUNTERFEITING WITH THE AID OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

It pays to buy genuine products there is no doubt about that, but the issue is, knowing if the product is genuine or not.
We all in one way or the other have been victims of counterfeiting goods, be it items of clothing, shoes etc. The pains we feel realizing that what we bought is fake, cannot be compared to that of the creator or owner. Counterfeiting a product brings discouragement to the owner, this is because the fake product might even be sold at the same price with the original or slightly lower.
The need to encourage product owners such as designers, artists, programmers etc by protecting their works or products, thereby putting a stop to counterfeiting is of paramount importance, thus the creation of a platform called SEAL.
In a nutshell, Seal is a project created by brilliant minds with the purpose of putting a stop to the promotion or buying of fake products. Seal enables users to identify original products.
Seal is a blockchain powered platform for authentication and services of products thus presenting consumers and manufactures with product trust.

THE SEAL PLATFORM

How Are Products Secured?
Seal platform is made up of;
a. NFC compatible chip: This is embedded into the product,
b. Seal App: User-friendly app, which works for NFC-enabled smartphones,
c. Seal Token: This ensures communication between different parts of the platform,
c. Seal Network: This comprises the blockchain database and Seal Tokenization. This is where transaction records and validation of nodes takes place.
Seal works by embedding the compatible NFC chip into the physical product, with the Seal App and Seal Network, a fast, simple and secure way to ensure product authentication is achieved. This is made possible because, for every physical product, there is a digital counterpart on the blockchain, with a simple scan by the app, verification of authenticity takes place.
How Do Owners Earn?
With a secured tokenized version of the product, the following product-specific services is achieved;
a. Transfering ownership,
b. Theft prevention,
c. Insurance,
d. Brand activation campaign,
e. Product analytics.
With this in place, brand owners will have the opportunity to earn whenever their products change hands thus reducing and protecting their products from counterfeiters.
Blockchain technology is very vital to Seal platform, this is because authenticity and ownership are guaranteed as long as people are within the decentralized Seal network.

THE PROBLEMS SEAL AIMS TO SOLVE

Primary Market Counterfeiting: The counterfeiting done in this category is intentional as the sole aim is to infringe IP and deceive customers, with the price slightly below the original products and mostly sold at a discount.
Secondary Market Counterfeiting: The prices in this category vary widely, that is, they are reduced as compared to the original product. This is because customers seek IP infringed products intentionally. It is worthy to note that, The Secondary Market Counterfeiting is different from the Secondhand Market.
Secondhand Market: This category lacks consumers trust and is highly sensitive to corruption. Seal on the other hand targets products with value store, this is because many products lose value in the secondhand market. The secondhand market is the biggest owing to the fact that it is made up of products ever sold, even the ones that are yet to be sold, but yet, the data in this market category is not substantial thus limiting brands from getting the full data properly.
The secondhand market can exist both online and offline. Few platforms offer buyers protection while most don't, even at that, counterfeiting can still take place and can only be realized after the product has been resold to another buyer.
Midnight Shifting: This occurs when brands manufacturing partners decide to use the trade secret given to them by the brands to produce goods at a more cheaper rate, thus working against the brand in question. These goods manufactured through this way are sold on the black market.
Since the product is the exact replica of the one being sold by the brand, they are hard to detect or control.

SOLUTION OFFERED BY SEAL

The current solutions such as static QR-codes, Holograms and RFID can easily be copied.
Thus the Seal Solution;

Online Authentication: Online authentication works with the aid of blockchain technology, How? This is because the chip embedded in the products can be copied, but with blockchain technology and a dynamic chip which changes its state anytime it's interacted with, prevents fraudsters from presenting the chip as a real one.
Making Products Easy To Verify: Seal presents an effortless way to authenticate products at the same time ensuring that the anti-counterfeiting method is tamper-proof. This is achievable with supported smartphones.
Removing Financial Incentives: Seal understood that counterfeiting is encouraged by financial motives. Therefore in order to stop this, Seal aims to embed a chip into the product which is authenticated on the blockchain, thus stopping the fortifying of products with hard-to-counterfeit materials.
Incentivize Adoption: When there is a change of ownership, the brands make a profit thus offsetting the cost of the chip. This way, Seal turns anti-counterfeiting into a profit centre.
Restoring Market Integrity: By making it possible for brands to monetize the secondhand market, Seal solves issues associated with it. Platforms like eBay and Amazon can utilize Seal thus identifying fake products. This will boost customers trust and confidence both in the online and offline marketplace.

SEAL TOKEN

Seal token SEAL is an ERC20 token built on Ethereum blockchain. It is a utility token with the total supply of 1.2 billion. SEAL is the currency of the platform and is used to power the Seal network.
SEAL is needed to gain access to the platform and also used for payment of services by consumers and brands.

TOKEN SALE DETAILS

CONCLUSION

Seal aims to build a platform where confidence will be restored to the consumer, with the owners interacting with their huge customers anywhere in the world without restriction.
Seal ensures consumers buy with confidence, ensures the value of the product and fight counterfeiting.
Seal makes it possible for users to confidently verify authentic goods. The process involved thereof is quick and economic.
Furthermore, brands are the only one with the power to issue product-pairing while disingenuous manufacturers won't be able to replicate any product which will compete with the real one.