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Amazon patents block chain-based product authenticator

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved Amazon’s three-year-old “Distributed ledger certification” filing on Tuesday. The patent reports using DLT to inspire digital trust from the initial stages of an item’s supply chain to the final stages.

Amazon’s system collects and arranges data from distributors, manufacturers, and shippers on an “open framework” that builds a product source across the information depository. This data could be well organized for the consumer.

According to Amazon, these “patchwork” technologies are also unable to enclose the global supply chain. The company is growing ever more crucial to the chain: Its couriers delivered 3.5 billion packages last year, about 46% of the total number.

Against those existing tech shortcomings, Amazon argued that distributed systems provide a captivating solution. DLT can secure data from modification, remove points of failure, and keep away from the managerial issues of centralized authority, like bottlenecks.

Amazon said in the patent that Hyperledger could be a type of DLT used. Amazon wrote: “Trust is earned.” The company’s enormous e-marketplace is flooded with counterfeits, according to the U.S. government. “Once trust is lost, it can often be difficult to regain.”

Amazon launched a counterfeit detection initiative last year called “Project Zero” designed to block fake products. In 2018, Amazon officials told the Wall Street Journal that the company has plans on spending billions of dollars fighting counterfeits.

U.S. lawmakers are aware of Amazon’s counterfeit product problem. The buying public is decidedly more trusting. In a Morning Consult poll, about 39% of respondents stated that they trust Amazon to a great extent. The US Postal Service, which delivers about 1/3rd of Amazon’s packages, ranked higher.