wine cellarBlockchain Wine Pte Ltd (BWPL) has selected EY to provide services to build a blockchain solution – TATTOO – leveraging EY’s OpsChain Solution. BWPL will operate this to help determine the quality, provenance, and authenticity of new and vintage wines.

Its focus will be on markets in China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore – where the consumption of European wines is expanding. BWPL believes TATTOO is the first global e-commerce platform enabled by blockchain which combines traceability, e-commerce and tokenisation.

Tim Tse, President and Chairman, Blockchain Wine Pte Ltd
Tim Tse, President and Chairman, Blockchain Wine Pte Ltd

Tim Tse, President and Chairman, Blockchain Wine Pte Ltd, said: “By integrating blockchain to our platform, we will establish direct connections between wine producers, the distributors, and the companies involved in logistics, such as shipping and warehousing, with the possibility of payments to be managed electronically.

“As the market in China for European wine is expanding, there are many small and medium wine producers that want to reach this market, but there is no way for distributors – and their customers – to get information on product quality or authenticity. Because we are now bringing in more imported wines, and quality is extremely important to us and our customers, we wanted a way to equip our distribution network in Asia and worldwide and, ultimately, their consumers, with the information they need to help ensure the source, authenticity and availability of the product they are buying.”

The TATTOO wine platform

OpsChain is EY’s flagship platform for the industrialisation of blockchain technology for enterprise users. It provides the basis to build the foundation of BWPL’s TATTOO Wine Platform, which BWPL will use to promote and sell wines worldwide.

The TATTOO Wine Platform has the support of The House of Roosevelt – one of the largest wine cellars in Asia – which will use the platform to sell wines directly from vineyards to:

  • hotels
  • restaurants
  • cafes (B2B)
  • customers (B2C).

In addition it hopes to facilitate wine sales between customers (customer to customer or C2C) for investment-grade wine collecting purposes. All of these will exploit smart contracts for increased efficiencies and cost effectiveness.

TATTOO stands for:

  • Traceability
  • Authenticity
  • Transparency
  • Trade
  • Origin
  • Opinion.

As it develops, the TATTOO Wine Platform will have more than 5,000 labels, including wines from France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America and California:

  • the traceability functions in the TATTOO Wine blockchain mean participants ca track each batch of wine to monitor and verify the authenticity and handling of the win
  • each bottle of wine will be “tattooed” with its own unique QR code (by scanning the QR code, participants can access information such as vineyards’ names and locations, details such as the types of fertilizers used to grow the crops and how each batch is transported for processing and delivery).

EY and OpsChain

EY OpsChain offers business applications in the areas of supply chain management and procurement, traceability, intercompany transactions, contract, asset and public financial management and tax planning. Already multiple use cases exist across food and beverage, health care, financial services and manufacturing industries.

Using EY OpsChain, businesses:

  • simplify supply chain management
  • integrate digital contracts
  • share inventory and logistics information
  • access pricing, invoicing and payments.

As an extension of OpsChain, EY has developed a specific e-commerce blockchain for the TATTOO Wine Platform. The TATTOO Wine Platform uses the standard ERC-721 tokens (Ethereum Request-for-Comment) to provide a token model to collect supply chain data and provide a mechanism for further evolution, such as automating procurement, order inventory and other processes. It is this which BWPL will leverage to attract participants into an ecosystem of:

  • wine producers
  • distributors
  • logistics providers
  • insurance operators
  • customers.

The objective is that the blockchain-based solution enables all participants to the trace origin and quality of wines. In addition EY’s approach will enable the use of tokens to:

  • buy and sell wine
  • schedule and track shipments
  • monitor warehousing and delivery
  • arrange for and track insurance coverage (of wine shipments).

OpsChain tools

The real time management tools included on the blockchain enable wine distributors, and consumers, to:

  • use tokens to order wine shipment directly from the TATTOO Wine Platform
  • track shipments, including movement through to customs
  • see the status of warehouse storage.

The smart contract capability on the blockchain provides the decentralised system for agreements between producers, logistics operators and insurance providers. The effect is to saves time while certifying all data is available to the participants.

Donato Iacovone, EY Mediterranean Regional Managing Partner
Donato Iacovone, EY Mediterranean Regional Managing Partner

Donato Iacovone, EY Mediterranean Regional Managing Partner, said: “Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the supply chain, which typically includes supplier payments, product traceability and contract bids and execution. The token feature of the blockchain EY teams developed for the TATTOO Wine Platform addresses these elements, and even helps distributors to exchange tokens for services like expedited shipping or special warehousing for their orders.

“All details of the smart contracts are on the blockchain and visible to all participants, and are compliant with global and country-specific regulations for shipments, which also speeds ordering and delivery.

Enterprise Times: what does this mean

The supply chain dimension of OpsChain and of TATTOO is wholly logical. It fits the use of blockchain into the broader logistics, supply chain and provenance evolution.

What is less clear is the tokenisation inside TATTOO. To Enterprise Times this seems superfluous and, if anything, it undermines TATTOO’s credibility. Why not use conventional currency? (If this is a parallel option, which is unclear, then this objection may not be valid). Enterprise Times remains unconvinced by most tokenisations. Until the BIS and its like becomes more positive, this is unlikely to change.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here