SupplyLink

Inspiration

We wanted to address a problem we see in our everyday lives as technologists and data scientists: data transparency around real world problems. We believe that by creating an open source of truth, the world is well equipped to combat counterfeiting.

What it does

SupplyLink is an authenticity verification service constructed in a Smart Disclosure framework. Non-invasive product UID submissions to this service enable item-level product verification by e-commerce giants and consumers alike. SupplyLink also incentivizes retailer and manufacturer buy-in toward a transparent data ecosystem. When a verified company submits a product to SupplyLink, the product unique identifier (UID) is written on an open ledger. E-commerce platforms can leverage SupplyLink to verify authenticity by submitting a product UID, bolstering consumer confidence at point of sale. This is just one example of SupplyLink’s open ledger. Choice Engines, like the prior example, act as applications built atop SupplyLink’s shared data ledger maximizing transparency of legitimate products and empowering the marketplace with real time product authenticity data. As buy-in increases, SupplyLink may become a ubiquitous truth source for product verification.

How we built it

The SupplyLink service has three primary user groups: producers, retailers, and consumers. A product item’s introduction into the ledger begins with producers and manufacturers of goods. Producers who undergo a customer verification process receive a set of credentials enabling item UID submission. After successful authentication, producers submit item UIDs to SupplyLink via a REST API service. Each submission contains a UID for a product item and additional information, like company ID, product item UID, IP Address, submission time, and additional data about the product. The company’s ID and item UID become the key to a single record in the ledger.

Some of the key technologies that empower the solution:

• Python
• FastAPI
• MySQL
• Figma for quick UI mock ups

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge for us was tying our policy proposal to a technology solution that embodied our building an incentivization structure towards industry adopting towards supply-chain transparency. Once we meet together as a team and found key research from Thaler and Sunstein, we were off the races. We also had to quickly understand the benefits and drawbacks of product identifiers of commercial goods.

What's next for SupplyLink

We hope to carry SupplyLink further and focus on fully fleshing out the technical implementation, potentially looking into more privacy preserving technologies and scaling the solution as more data is collected.

Built With

• python