Luxury fashion labels Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Prada have come together to form the Aura Blockchain Consortium to provide the customers a blockchain-backed seal of authenticity for their products.

The consortium by the world’s largest luxury product manufacturers will provide customers with an additional method to prove that their products are genuine upon purchase.

The counterfeit luxury goods market across the world is worth nearly $1 trillion, according to reports.

An ASSOCHAM report from 2018 said that the fake luxury goods market in India alone was worth Rs 6,000 crore. A significant part of the market is made up of goods from LVMH, Louis Vuitton’s parent company, Prada, and Cartier’s parent company Richemont.

Blockchain authenticity will remain unquestionable as the digital ledger is not hackable and will record the entire transaction history of each item that will be purchased. This will make every item traceable from its first purchase all the way down to its return back to the fashion houses. Since all the certificates will be encrypted, there will be no room for fake certificates or hacked certificates.

The consortium hopes that this will increase people’s willingness to sell second-hand luxury goods.

Even though the brands are going to be using blockchain technology, they have no plans currently in place to start accepting cryptocurrency payments, according to a Bloomberg report.

The consortium is already in talks with other luxury brands to add them to the group. The plan is to use the system as an industry standard instead of letting individual brands resolve it with their own solutions and methodologies.

According to LVMH’s Managing Director Antonio Belloni Louis Vuitton, Bulgari and Hublot have already tried the technology, while Tiffany is the next to join the block.

There might be new processes involved in Aura Blockchain as the technology evolves further, said Cyrille Vigneron, CEO of Cartier. Cartier recently tested out a new feature that uses blockchain technology to ensure that products that are being returned haven’t been altered or changed.

https://www.coindesk.com/louis-vuitton-cartier-prada-aura-blockchain-consortium