OriginTrail – Revolutionizing Supply Chains

Sep 28, 2020

The Problem

Today's supply chains often have the problem that they are non-transparent and inefficient. Also, customers in the stores sometimes cannot be 100% sure if they are not supporting pollution, exploitation, etc. when buying a given product. Global supply chains make it easier for fraudsters to manipulate goods or entire parts of the supply chain because they are usually very unclear.

OrignTrail tackles this and many other problems and tries to revolutionize today's supply chains. How the network works is explained to the DEFI WORLD community in this Token Analysis.

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How OriginTrail works

First of all, it is important to understand that OriginTrail is not a blockchain or company, but a network or ecosystem. Companies can join the network and exchange information about different goods with each other.

The following is an example to illustrate this concept: A farmer from Mexico harvests oranges. The farmer sells a part of his harvest (400 fruits) to a large juice producer in the USA. The buyer and seller specify exactly what the condition of the oranges is, how many oranges are shipped, when the oranges were harvested, from where they are shipped, and so on.

This information can be checked and compared by the juice producer from the USA when the goods arrive. If the goods comply with all the agreed aspects, the message gets hashed with the contained information and stored on a blockchain; for example, on the Ethereum blockchain. This hash is a unique digital fingerprint, which cannot be manipulated.

The whole concept is that the network offers a fast and efficient way to exchange information but the storing of the data is held on a blockchain. So, to manipulate exchanged data afterward, fraudsters would need to hack a whole blockchain which is completely utopian.

Even though this example was just from a small supply chain, it can be applied to much larger and continental supply chains with multiple participants.

In addition to that also customers can profit from this kind of technology. German customers for example often have the problem of not knowing where the product actually comes from when buying packaged meat. In many cases, the last production step is completed in Germany, but the animals are raised and slaughtered in countries such as Poland, Netherlands, Chile, or Thailand.

This type of sale is completely non-transparent and unfair to the consumers, as important information is withheld from them. OriginTrail's solutions could therefore protect consumers and help them make more informed choices when buying food in the supermarket, but also make supply chains, in general, more transparent, efficient, and tamper-resistant.

Target Users

On the one hand, large companies are interested in such technologies because they have more control over their own supply chain. Currently, OriginTrail specializes primarily in food supply chains, but this technology can be applied to any other sector. Nevertheless, OriginTrail could also be interesting to consumers, as they now have more transparency and protection when shopping in the supermarket.

Also, humans could get protected from exploitation, since this would be discovered immediately when scanning a QR Code. Consumers would rather decide against buying a product if they knew that they would support exploitation. This is how companies could get forced to treat employees fairly.

In Addition to that, there is the opportunity of becoming a data holder. In order to serve customer’s information when scanning a QR code, it is necessary to store data within. However, holding an enormous amount of data is not cheap and needs a lot of computing power. Therefore, data holders get paid in the TRAC token which rewards the number of costs spent.

Whenever a customer asks for information by scanning the QR code of a product the data holder gets paid by the network. This would allow OriginTrail to guarantee a passive income for many people.

Tokenomics

The TRAC token is, as already mentioned, a reward for the nodes to provide the different functionalities of the network. Currently, there is a supply of about 289 000 of TRAC tokens. However, the total supply of TRAC tokens will be 500 Million.

OriginTrail’s market cap is $45 Mio. right now, which is the reason why the network is ranked on #171. Since their all-time low (0,003 on 03/13/2020) they are now at $0,157 (09/27/2020) which is a growth of 50 x. TRAC tokens are tradeable on Uniswap, KuCoin, and other platforms.

Conclusion

While OriginTrail may not operate directly in the DeFi sector, the project represents an exciting opportunity to revolutionize an entire sector. The logistics sector. One day, there will probably be many other networks besides OriginTrail that will make other types of supply chains more transparent and efficient.

Also, data holders could become a socially accepted profession, which could create new jobs. Due to his technology, supply chains will get more efficient and transparent, which is cost-saving for many companies. Consumers are getting protected from misinformation and non-transparency when buying different products. However, if investing in the OriginTrail token will pay off is a completely different question which you have to answer for yourself.

Nonetheless, we at DEFI WORLD see OriginTrail as a very solid network with huge potential!

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