Everyone deserves to get what they pay for. When you pay a high price for a brand-name product, you expect that product to be genuine. When you discover that your upmarket purchase is substandard, you’re either going to realise that you’ve been duped into buying a cheaply-made knock-off or you’re going to lose your trust in the brand. Both cases result in a loss of consumer confidence in the brand and/or the retailer who sold you the counterfeit item.

As frustrating as unintentionally buying a knock-off Gucci handbag or Hugo Boss suit can be, counterfeit goods impact our lives in far more sinister, and even fatal, ways.

At Seal, we’ve devoted ourselves to protecting the value of the world’s most beloved brands. So we developed a product authentication platform that combines two cutting-edge technologies: blockchain and near-field communication (NFC).

Brands will find it easy to add Seal’s supply-chain information into their production and distribution processes. Retailers will be able to integrate it into their ordering and sales systems swiftly. Consumers will appreciate its ease of use and, of course, the assurance that they’re buying genuine brand-name goods. Sellers on the secondary market will value the trust that Seal provides.

Throughout a Seal-authenticated product’s existence, each of its owner can officially register and claim ownership of that product for a micropayment in Seal Tokens (SEAL), facilitating theft protection and insurance processes.

Four components drive the Seal platform:

● The Seal Chip is embedded in physical products to identify them and validate their authenticity

● The Seal App, which anyone can install on a NFC-compatible smartphone

● The Seal Token (SEAL) is the medium of exchange between the different parts of the platform

● The Seal Network is an immutable blockchain database, the nodes of which record and validate all transactions involving products containing the Seal Chip