My Story, Italian wine and a blockchain

Italian wine makers are implementing My Story, a solution which offers consumers an easy check on the contents of each wine bottle. This is an example of how enterprises, large and small, can now increase the transparency in their sourcing and delivery (in effect through the supply chain). It demonstrates what lies behind products, the characteristics which make products unique.

The Italian wine sector is the first to use the new solution, with the four wine producers Michele Chiarlo, Ricci Curbastro, Ruffino and Torrevento being the frontrunners. They will feature the My Story label on their bottles in stores within the end of the year.

“My Story is our first solution based on our brand new Digital Assurance concept which already goes far beyond tracking a product from the point of origin up to the consumer. The VeChain powered Blockchain application will be available on DNV GL’s data management platform Veracity. This is only the first step of a longer journey in which we will leverage on the combined and coherent use of Blockchain, IoT, Data Curation and Artificial Intelligence to help customers building trust on their products, improving their performances and increasing efficiency in processes,” says Digital Transformation Director in DNV GL – Business Assurance Renato Grottola.

DNV GL

Quality assurance and risk management company DNV GL has announced, at the annual GFSI Global Food Safety Conference in Tokyo, My Story. This is an off-the-shelf blockchain based digital assurance solution for the food and beverage industry which combines:

• industry expertise
• physical independent audits
• data collection
• verification services.

My Story aims to provide insights into the different characteristics and production processes behind a product. Consumers will be able to assist their purchasing decisions by scanning a QR-code. This will bring up the full history of that product, including its journey from vine to bottle.

Luca Crisciotti, CEO of DNV GL said: “My Story illuminates products and their supply chain for the benefit of consumers, who will have instant and in-depth access to key products characteristics such as quality, authenticity, origin, ingredients, water and energy consumption and more, all verified by DNV GL along the entire transformation process.

“Brands, retailers and transformers will have the possibility to leverage on verified data to better understand their supply chain, while improving every aspect of products with reference to economic, quality, safety, environmental and ethical criteria. (Both) retailer and brands will be able to communicate about their products by a narrative in which commitments and key product attributes are verified by DNV GL, and accessible by consumers. (We hope) My Story will progressively expand into other product categories in the food and beverage industry as well as other consumer driven industries”.

Blockchain-powered My Story,

My Story is a solution based on the Digital Assurance concept. The application, powered by VeChain’s blockchain, will be available on DNV GL’s data management platform Veracity. (What is not clear, at least from its website, is what VeChain’s technology offers – it is decorative and opaque.)

With Veracity, DNV aspires to create an ecosystem. In DNV’s view, Veracity is a marketplace to deliver digital services, tools and apps. It is also a platform, where other qualified developers and suppliers of digital services and analytics can develop and market their services, applications and insights.

On the platform’s marketplace, asset owners can subscribe to industrial applications and data analytics services to:

• make better use of data
• optimize their safety and performance.

These applications will be provided not only by DNV GL, but by other qualified providers of data, data analytics and digital solutions.

What does this mean

Where personal data covered by GDPR meets blockchain there is going to be Brexit-like confusion for years. Product sourcing and safety is quite different. There is no (obvious) personal data involved, just the about the wines.

This is significant. My Story, and other food safety initiatives like the Blockchain Food Safety Alliance in China, IBM or Ambrosus+SCL, should not suffer ftom a GDPR-blockchain confusion. The result may be that blockchain investment and implementation activity bifurcates, between that involving personal data (which stagnates) and that lacking personal data which makes progress.