simplyBrand

What is simplyBrand

Research has shown that counterfeits pose a great threat to individuals, companies, industries and even world governments. With the technological advancement of the internet, the negative effects of counterfeiting have now been magnified and are causing a larger scale of damage. Most brands choose to invest a large amount of money into implementing NFC or RFID technologies into their products, but the results are still limited and the costs are still high.

We will create a solution to this problem by establishing a platform with a built-in AI model and machine learning technology to identify counterfeits. Crowd-sourced participants will be incentivized to assist in verifying the unidentifiable items, while the information of the counterfeiters will be published on the blockchain, which is immutable and public for everybody to read. In addition, two major functions will be released along the way which will result in more parties joining the platform to complete the goal of the platform evolving into a self-governed ecosystem. By combining these cutting-edge technologies with new mechanisms to govern the platform by itself, our solution is able to solve this problem effectively on a large scale.

Solution Framework

In today’s increasingly technological world, E-commerce is becoming more influential to people’s lives, which is also creating new and expanding avenues for counterfeiters to exploit. These counterfeiters exist everywhere and have permeated E-commerce channels all over the world, creating an unprecedented flow of counterfeit products. Counterfeits are low quality and dangerous, which is why simplyBrand is presenting a new way to improve global E-commerce that will benefit everyone from major brands to individual consumers.

The simplyBrand platform will combine AI, human ingenuity and blockchain technology which will be used to create an immutable “blacklist” of counterfeit product vendors available for the world to see, while the tokens within the blockchain will incentivize crowdsourced participants to utilize the simplyBrand platform.

Roles within the ecosystem

Below are the various roles and the benefits they will gain from being a part of the simplyBrand platform.

Brands

Brands will directly benefit from the simplyBrand platform by having counterfeit versions of their products quickly identified, verified and removed, helping them to maintain a positive brand image and regain their market share. Counterfeit retailers will also be exposed, giving brands the chance to learn more about the source of counterfeit products. Brands will join the ecosystem by paying a service fee, and by offering products and services as rewards to crowdsourced participants. Brands will give back to the ecosystem by helping to improve the accuracy of the verification process and contribute to whitelisting legitimate retailers.

Crowdsourced Participants

The participants in this system will be the people supporting the verification process; people who are likely fans of specific brands and products, or those who simply wish to make some pocket money. Within the ecosystem, participants will be shown product pages and verify if they are counterfeit or not, helping to improve AI accuracy. They will also be shown two product pictures and will verify the real version, helping to improve image recognition. Finally, they will directly report counterfeit products on E-commerce platforms, helping the AI to collect real samples for further improvement.

Enforcement agencies

Enforcement agencies refers to the organizations that specialize in working with E-commerce platforms to remove counterfeit products from the E-commerce platforms. By joining the ecosystem and working within the platform, they will have access to a large amount of counterfeit product info instead of having to find it manually, allowing them to increase their earning potential and prove their effectiveness to brands and potential new clients.

Third parties

The platform will also be available to a variety of third party organizations, including legal firms and other organizations that wish to do business with brands and/or participate in the ecosystem. These organizations will participate because it improves their access, and subsequent offerings, to a variety of global brands. Many third parties already working with brands will benefit by having access to a system wherein they can find data to help evaluate the risk factors which counterfeiting poses to a brand.