Every day, millions of people download or stream pirated content such as movies, TV shows, games, MP3s and books. A report released by the consulting firm Frontier Economics titled "The Economic Impacts of Counterfeiting and Piracy" indicates that by 2022, the economic value of global counterfeiting and piracy will reach US$2.3 trillion, with potential economic damages as high as 4.2 trillion US dollars. The protection of intellectual property rights is one of the key drivers behind economic development. The protection of intellectual property rights includes combating counterfeit goods, cracking down on piracy, issuance of patents, countering brand infringements, etc., all of which have a great impact on the healthy and orderly development of the online industry.

Global trades have become a part of our everyday lives. However, cross-border supply chain management faces several difficulties that make it easy for counterfeit and inferior products to surface on the market. This has become a serious problem that harms corporate interests, people's livelihood, and even the society as a whole. Pharmaceuticals, alcohol, luxury goods, and food; almost all industries are haunted by the threats of fake and shoddy products. Counterfeit and shoddy products not only cause huge economic losses, but also endanger the lives of consumers.

Goods are handled many times in a supply chain by multiple parties. Manufacturers, distributors, and consumers can only contact each other’s upstream and downstream connections, and cannot understand the real-time situation or have any control. According to the theory of Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz: Information asymmetry creates an imbalance of power in transactions, which can sometimes cause the transactions to go awry, a kind of market failure in the worst case. Information asymmetry will also increase the cost of trust between enterprises and reduce the benefits of any potential cooperation.

Anti-Counterfeiting Traceability 1.0

Traceability is an important means of safety management. In China, a traceability management system was already established 20 years ago, but it has failed as a comprehensive and effective deterrent towards counterfeiting. There are several problems of traceability in the current market. First of all, the technical threshold for two-dimensional codes is extremely low and can be easily copied and misappropriated, while difficult to track and monitor.

For tags utilizing RFID technology, the centralized servers that are used are at risk of being hacked or tampered with. Also, in cases of theft by a system administrator, it can be very harmful and difficult to detect. In the past two years, blockchain technology has been integrated into anti-counterfeiting and traceability applications due to its unique characteristics of transparency and traceability. However, security issues before the information were migrated onto a blockchain remains unresolved. The original security issues in the supply chain still exist, and the integration of blockchain technology became just a gimmick.

UCOT Anti-Counterfeiting System

To understand whether blockchain technology can establish a true and effective anti-counterfeiting traceability system, we must first understand what blockchain technology is. Simply put, blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger, which are digital logs that record state changes and transactions that can be shared on public or private networks. Distributed ledger, decentralized network, smart contract, and other features of the blockchain can reshape the IoT ecosystem, and the UCOT smart IoT system will verify the authenticity of information transmitted to the anti-counterfeiting system before they are uploaded on-chain.

Founded in 2017, UCOT is committed to the research and development of technological products based on the integration of blockchain, Internet of Things, big data and the physical economy. It is an operator of anti-counterfeiting traceability solutions for industrial supply chains, helping enterprises complete the industrial interconnection, transformation and upgrading of supply chains. Ultimately, UCOT aims to build a new generation of anti-counterfeiting traceability ecosystem.

UCOT has had outstanding technical advantages, which can be seen with its 8 international patents and copyrights. The blockchain developed by UCOT adopts the self-developed UxBFT consensus agreement, which features high efficiency, high capacity, and high security. When it comes to IoT, UCOT is the first to use 5G communication technology to build a special IoT that can be connected directly, independently and actively sending signals to realize the intelligent connection of all things.

In terms of technical depth, the UCOT network showcases its astute understanding of all matters with regards to IoT. Its hybrid architecture supports flexible business logic, and cross-chain protocols support the transfer of value between different blockchains. After the implementation of 5G, the narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) utilized by UCOT can realize the automatic uploading of IoT information to blockchain with low power consumption, low cost, wide coverage and massive connectivity. To combat counterfeiting within the supply chains, the UCOT prototype IoT sensor microchip can be customized to detect light, temperature, humidity and other sensors, and can also be embedded in product packaging or livestock ear tags to realize information tracking and monitoring in different functional scenes.

UCOT’s intelligent IoT system based on blockchain technology can track supply chain logistics and manage commercial transactions with smart contracts to improve commodity logistics management. All data can be shared in a secure, transparent, and trusted manner throughout the supply chain, with traceability reduced from 6 days to 2.2 seconds. In the supply chain, a smart platform based on blockchain should be established. Smart commodities can communicate with supply chain nodes autonomously, and blockchain technology can ensure that information remain tamper-proof and easily traced. In the supply chain space, through smart contract automation of business processes, smart commodities will automatically initiate payment with the real-time flow of its own entity.

As a blockchain ecology, UCOT already has as many as 6 application products, namely:

1. UTracer (Blockchain traceability app),

2. UTMS (Enterprise-based blockchain management platform),

3. UCerti (Blockchain certification),

4. UPhoto (File Manager),

5. UTracker (UCT IoT Transmitter),

6. UCOT Chain (Blockchain foundational layer).

UTracer and UPhoto can already be downloaded for use in the app store, proving that blockchain applications are no longer just a gimmick. With blockchain and IoT technology at its core, combined with big data, cloud services, AI and other technologies, UCOT aims to provide consumers with safe, efficient, transparent, and low-cost intelligent supply chain management solutions and product traceability services. Let us work together to realize a new era of IoT!