Blockchain will become a breakthrough for new retail

In the Internet era, with the emergence of a new retail environment and a changing retail model, the business model will change with a little turmoil. Every new sales operation concept or concept will emerge in a wave of all walks of life, merchants from all walks of life will also carry out their own adjustments and upgrades under the guidance of new ideas to adapt to the new situation changes.

The recent S2b model is considered to be the most advanced business model in five years. In the context of the rapid development of new retail, the application of blockchain will be an important breakthrough point for the S2b model. So, what impact does the S2b model have on the retail industry? As a breakthrough and extension, how will the blockchain empower new retail? What kind of inspiration will the entire retail industry bring?

Blockchain as a breakthrough point for new retail

Under the impact of the Internet tide, all walks of life have produced varying degrees of change, while the retail industry is the industry most affected by it. At such a time node, the S2b business model is the most appropriate. This is the result of the inevitable emergence of the retail industry to a certain stage, and is the product of the times.

Specifically S2B2C, a powerful, data-based supply chain platform (S), with thousands of direct-service customers (b), combining human creativity and system network creativity at low cost Communicate more effectively with users. The connotation of S2B mode is divided into two categories.

But in terms of unity, S and small b work together. In the Internet age, this "common service" has two meanings:

First, when the small b service c, you must call a service provided by S: S can not only provide some kind of SaaSization tool, it must provide some value-added services based on the integration of the upstream supply chain, in order to help b better Service c.

Second, for S, the process of small b service c must be transparent to it, and will give real-time feedback to improve the service of S to small b. To achieve this, first of all, the process of small b service c must be online; secondly, S and small b should be online, software, automatic coordination, and better service c. Here, for example, if you supply micro-business, but the process of micro-business service c, S does not participate at all, can not provide greater value, which is not S2b2c.

The S2B model is about to become the background of the retail industry, from a macro perspective to examine the S2B model in the new retail era. In this new era of retail, how we seek development and breakthrough, the application of blockchain is a good development direction. From the paradigm requirements of the model, the core of the model is nothing more than consumption determines production, and a series of powerful and scientific supply chain systems are needed behind production. The application of the blockchain in the new retail environment is of great benefit and has the following characteristics:

1. The decentralized/intermediary trust system itself guarantees its authenticity and does not require external trust to endorse the subject. Full height

2. Open: The system is open. Except that the private information of the parties to the transaction is encrypted, the data of the blockchain is open to all and the information is transparent.

3. Autonomy: Any artificial intervention does not work, reducing external adverse intervention.

4, the information can not be falsified, because the data on the chain can only increase, can not be modified characteristics, which determines the open and transparent modification of the transaction.

5. Anonymity: The counterparty does not need to open the identity to let the other party generate trust, which is very helpful for the accumulation of credit.

At the same time, it is precisely because of the advantages and characteristics of the blockchain technology that it solves the problems faced by our current product traceability. Now our product traceability also faces the following problems:

1. The problem of traceability of the product may have to be traced back. It is best to record the production environment of the product. Take agricultural products as an example, the application of pesticides, the drought conditions of the land and the illumination time of crops. If these data can be recorded truthfully, it will be very helpful to increase the credibility of the goods.

2. Entering multiple information records is in a single system. The information system is a centralized system, and there is a problem that a single individual may do evil. In a market economy, tampering with information is inevitable. This easily leads to consumer confidence in the commodity trust.

3. At present, the mainstream system has information island problems in the supply chain of the entire commodity. Usually, there are multiple information systems in the entire supply chain, and the information systems are difficult to interact with each other, resulting in cumbersome information check and unbalanced data interaction. Finally, the offline requires too many checks and duplicate checks to make up for multiple system interactions. problem.

4. The current information leakage phenomenon is serious. Consumers cannot protect personal privacy and worry about the safety of purchase of goods.

In response to the above problems, blockchain technology is naturally suitable for solving the pain points of product traceability and circulation.

We can participate in the same data source through the blockchain and participate in as many commodity supply chain participants as possible. The more participants, the more data they maintain together, the easier it is to give consumers more data to trust. The decentralized nature of the blockchain itself, the distributed network naturally overcomes the various drawbacks of the centralized system.

At the same time, it can avoid the problem of artificially doing evil or data accidental loss. Multi-party joint maintenance of the characteristics of the same data source helps us to break the problem of information silos between different systems. In addition, in terms of privacy protection, on the basis of anonymity, blockchain technology also guarantees user privacy through other technical means. Currently, there are several ways such as mixed currency, ring signature, homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proof. The privacy of the consumer.

 How to apply blockchain in new retail?

Taking the function of blockchain traceability technology as an example, Jingdong took the lead in implementing the blockchain traceability technology this year, with obvious effects.

First, the blockchain technology is used to connect the supply chain of the participating entities of different commodity circulations with the blockchain storage system. These include origin, producers, distributors, retailers, brands, and consumers. Make each participant's information available in the blockchain system.

Secondly, the operators of the blockchain alliance chain are roughly divided into the following items: alliance chain, automation, visualization, data efficiency, cross-chain bridging, each link has a complete set of operating mechanisms, and the data link information is comprehensive and automated. , openness, efficiency, rationality and linkage.

This operational management mechanism is more scientific and rational. Especially in the food industry, taking beef as an example, through the unique traceability code of the purchased beef, consumers clearly understand the authenticity of the purchased beef, trace the entire trace, and greatly enhance trust. At the same time, through the big data lyrics to help enterprises carry out brand marketing and other smart marketing activities, to maximize the benefits of enterprises and consumers.

Finally, based on the retail industry's natural characteristics of fragmentation of transaction data, diversification of trading nodes, and complexity of trading networks, the collection, storage and integration of information such as commodity production, circulation, and delivery are core propositions of end-to-end retail supply chain management. .

The credibility, reliability, checkability and security of the whole process information are the most concerned by consumers, regulatory authorities and e-commerce malls. The blockchain technology integrates multiple basic technologies such as consensus mechanism, distributed data storage, point-to-point transmission and encryption algorithms, and is naturally applicable to end-to-end information management in the retail supply chain. Caring for consumers.

Previously mentioned the application of blockchain traceability technology, it can be that consumers see the goods in that link, the process is more clear and clear. It provides a good platform for producers to reproduce, market regulation and e-commerce market operations and management. Let me give you another way, that is, accounting.

The blockchain is essentially a "decentralized" huge ledger database. It can be said that the traditional centralized accounting method is converted into distributed accounting. A blockchain is made up of a string of data generated using cryptography associations. In my opinion, the application blockchain is intended to construct a trusted distributed business ecosystem that can both self-circulate and expand outward.

As I mentioned before, the information of the blockchain is transparent, open and sensible. For the retail market, the profit is divided into two parts, one is the true value of the commodity, and the other is from the real value of the commodity. The addition of market information.

A reasonable source of two sources of profit. Based on the environment created by the blockchain, market entities can reduce their mutual alertness and increase the possibility of cooperation based on the openness of information. This is also the benign effect of the trusted distributed business ecosystem that I envisioned. It is also the basis and premise of distributed accounting.

Cooperation in this kind of good ecological environment can be more simple, efficient and low-cost, so as to achieve effective integration of resources and create more economic and social value. More importantly, I believe that business is the result of the joint efforts of every market entity, and is also a participant in the blockchain. Each participant can find his own position in the blockchain, contribute a skill, and gain The corresponding rewards realize their own value.

Blockchain will spread to the entire retail industry

Based on the above understanding and thinking, and following the objective laws of business development, the blockchain operation model is intended to combine each element of the business with the characteristics of commercial business participants and blockchains, so that each participating element Digitize and establish a standard platform to facilitate information sharing and unification. In my opinion, in this process the blockchain mainly solves the trust and security issues of the transaction, so I propose three technical innovations for this problem:

The first is called asymmetric encryption and authorization technology. The transaction information stored in the blockchain is public, but the account identity information is highly encrypted and can only be accessed if authorized by the data owner, thus ensuring the data. Security and personal privacy.

The second is called a smart contract. Smart contracts are based on these trusted, non-tamperable data that can be automated to execute some predefined rules and terms. In the case of insurance, if everyone's information (including medical information and risk-generating information) is authentic, it is easy to automate claims in some standardized insurance products.

The third technical feature is called the consensus mechanism, which is how to reach a consensus among all accounting nodes to determine the validity of a record. This is both a means of identification and a means of preventing tampering. The blockchain proposes three different consensus mechanisms that apply to different application scenarios and strike a balance between efficiency and security.

Taking Bitcoin as an example, the proof of workload is used. Only when the accounting node of the whole network exceeds 51% is controlled, it is possible to forge a record that does not exist. This is basically impossible when there are enough nodes to join the blockchain, thus eliminating the possibility of fraud. The establishment of the above three technological innovations can make good preconditions and preparations for accounting. Only in the real world, commodity targets, participating parties, and commercial activities can be accurately transformed into the world of blockchains, and the benign interaction of the three can be realized.

Only in this way, distributed accounting has the possibility of execution. Simply speaking, the accounting of the blockchain is about data decentralization. The transaction accounting is done by multiple nodes distributed in different places, and each node is The complete accounts are recorded, so they can all participate in the supervision of the legality of the transaction, and they can also testify together. Unlike traditional centralized accounting schemes, no single node can record accounts separately, thus avoiding the possibility of a single biller being controlled or being bribed to record a false account.

On the other hand, since there are enough billing nodes, in theory, unless all the nodes are destroyed, the accounts will not be lost, thus ensuring the security of the account data. For example, there are 100 people in a village, and accounting needs to be accounted for. One day, the village sent the old king to buy things. On the one hand, he had to go to the accountant to check the accounts and get the money. On the other hand, he had to confirm that the old man was not reliable, and he would not take the money to run.

It can be seen that accounting is equivalent to being a bank. In this way, the role of accounting will become the least efficient part of the entire transaction, and the risk is not small, for example, accounting is not here today, this can not be done; accounting may also be bribed, the village will suffer losses.

The application of blockchain technology is to build a complete account for everyone in the village. In this case, if you find someone to trade, you can find this person without any third party intervention.

It can also be seen that the benefit of the blockchain is that if there are enough books (100 people in the village have 100 books), it is difficult to see 100 accounts lost, so the security of the entire data is also obtained. The promotion, because everyone has a book, so the industry and even the entire society cost is reduced, efficiency is improved. Similarly, resources can be optimally distributed and distributed, and this will inevitably lead to the birth of new business operations models and efficient operation.

Blockchain is an inevitable outcome of the new retail environment, and the development trend will inevitably spread across the retail industry, especially in the e-commerce industry. We should firmly grasp the pulse of the times, seize the opportunity, and, under the new situation, promote the industry to better adapt to the new environment under the new retail.