Fake sneakers are the nemesis of those who look to purchase kicks on the secondary market. This thorn in the side of sneaker culture has evolved to the point where in some cases, it’s difficult to differentiate the fake from authentic kicks. A company called Chronicled is taking an interesting approach to doing something about that.
Their idea is to make an open-source, distributed and decentralized ledger of sneakers and luxury and other collectible goods. Chronicled has raised $3.2 million in seed funding to further its ongoing development of its sneaker authenticity system by using the blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin. A blockchain is, as defined by investopedia,
“a public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions that have ever been executed…. A block is the “current” segment of a blockchain that records some or all of the recent transactions, and once completed, a new block is generated.”
It is Chronicle’s intent to use blockchain tech to build an anonymous and encrypted sneaker registry in order to increase buyers’ trust in sellers. This registry would work with “smart tags” (which are encrypted and tamper proof, according to the company)Chronicle developed to identify authentic sneakers. The tags can be scanned with a smartphone to prove their origin.
Chronicle is hoping to bring their product to launch in April and they think that applying the technology to sneakers is just the tip of the iceberg.
