The Retailer

I am a lifelong retailer, author of the #1 Bestseller The Retail Handbook, qualified accountant and a Blockchain leader, helping to develop, and understand, the new technologies transforming retail, CPG and supply chain businesses. Being born into a retail family, and working since a young age, has given me an insatiable desire to grow, develop, and nurture business and change within business.

The world is transforming at an ever faster pace and keeping track of the latest technologies inspires me to learn more, and help others understand the transformational impacts of these technologies. I started my research into Blockchain in 2016 and have learnt more than most about the technology and its impact on business and society.

I am a Blockchain advisor to the UK Government, a lecturer on the UCL Executive Blockchain programme, and judge and retail advisor for Blockchain Live. I run the Retail Week Technology blog for Oracle, and am a speaker on Blockchain at many events, including Tech: Retail Week, FT Future of Retail and Retail 4.0 (Berlin).

I focus on the retail and supply chain use cases for Blockchain, and other complementary technologies such as IoT, AI/ML, and RPA.

My experience in Blockchain has led me to inspire hundreds of people on the future of Blockchain, so that together we can learn how this technology will transform our lives. I have spoken at many events in the UK, Europe, South America, and Canada to all people interested in Blockchain and the transformational opportunities it gives.

Crypto Investment

My interest in Blockchain started in February 2016 when I asked a colleague ‘What is Bitcoin? And why are retailers not using it?’ Little did I know, that one conversation would open my mind to the potential of Blockchain technology. I spent three months researching, discussing, and finding out how Blockchain worked, using books and online information, and attending meetups. During this research I came across Ethereum and started to research Ethereum in depth.

In August 2016, I bought my first 11 ETH for £8.88 each – £100 well spent. Once I was literally invested, I started to research daily. I kept my focus on Ethereum, as this is a true Blockchain and can support many types of Blockchain use case. I joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and attended many of the Ethereum meetups – when there were less than 100 of us (now there are 1000s attending these meetups!).

Blockchain Leadership

As a leader in the Blockchain world, I spend most of my days working with organizations providing Blockchain technology solutions for organizations wanting to use Blockchain solutions. I meet many different people each day, and find out more about the future of Blockchain technology all the time.

My main role is to develop and deliver the Blockchain message to help people understand the future potential. This helps to bring more people into the ecosystem who can contribute to the development of the Blockchain solutions.

I keynote at many conferences and ensure that my focus is on the practical use cases of Blockchain technology. I enjoy presenting the vision of the future to people from all walks of life and experience. After all my keynotes, I am inundated with questions and eager people wanting to learn more (one of the main reasons for writing this book).

We are at the beginning of the Blockchain technology revolution and as such, not one person can call themselves an expert in Blockchain technology, which, together with the speed of the movement in Blockchain technologies, means that I have introduced a number of ‘Blockchainers’ to contribute to this book.

They are all clearly referenced in their sections within the book, but I want to thank them all at the beginning – their expertise and input, will give you the reader, a deeper and more varied understanding of this revolutionary technology.

The majority of my contributors have given their view on the future of Blockchain in their own words – have a look at the final chapter to see what these global Blockchain experts (plus a few more) think the future of Blockchain holds – a very interesting read!

My contributors, in no particular order:

• Damien Moore MP – Member of Parliament for Southport and Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Blockchain. Damien was born in Cumbria and spent most his childhood there. He moved to Preston in 2002 where he studied for a bachelor's in history at the University of Central Lancashire. He spent the majority of his career in the retail sector and was a retail manager for supermarket chain ASDA before becoming an MP. Since being elected to Parliament, Damien has been elected onto the Science & Technology Committee and the Petitions Committee – and is also involved in many All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs). He is Chair of the APPGs for Tunisia and Blockchain.
• Paolo Tasca – Paolo is a fintech economist specializing in P2P financial systems. He has served as an advisor on Blockchain technologies for different international organizations including the EU Parliament and the United Nations. Paolo is founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Blockchain Technologies (UCL CBT) at University College London.
• Nikhil Vadgama – Nikhil is the Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies. He is also a founding member of the Retail Blockchain Consortium. He is actively involved in the commercialization of AI and Blockchain academic research in the finance, real estate, and education sectors in the UK and China. He also advises numerous early-stage Blockchain and AI companies. He has previously worked globally as an Investment Banker for HSBC. Nikhil holds an MBA from INSEAD, an MPhys from the University of Oxford and has passed all three levels of the CFA Programme.
• Vikram Kimyani – Vikram is a Blockchain and cloud solutions architect who currently works for Oracle in their Financial Services team. He is married with two kids and lives in London with a cat affectionately known as ‘scaredy cat’. He often speaks at conferences, meetups and to customers about Blockchain strategy and use cases within enterprises. He has an extensive IT background having worked for an investment bank where his team looked after one of the largest private cloud deployments in Europe.
• Geri Cupi – Geri is currently CEO and co-founder of MonoChain, a Blockchain start-up which is developing provenance and tracking for the luxury second life market. He has been in the blockchain space since 2014 doing research for a Bitcoin ETF and Bitcoin use cases in other industries while he was working as a VC at Velo Partners. Geri is the co-founder and technical director of Retail Blockchain Consortium, where he looks after the DLT development and thought leadership for the consortium. Also, Geri is a research fellow at UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies and a visiting lecturer at the University of Bath and the University of Edinburgh. Previously, Geri co-founded two retail e-commerce technologies: Jook, a social commerce company, and Social DNA, which was acquired by Levi's.
• Chris Wing – Chris is a Solution Architect at Oracle Corporation. He has a degree in Computer Science from Kent University and is a software developer at heart. Currently his interests include the application and development of Machine Learning for Document Analysis; Blockchain technologies and its use cases; and Computer Vision and OCR. Chris has appeared at multiple events talking about a variety of topics, including DevOps for modern business, Blockchain and its use cases and IoT & AI in the modern world.
• Areiel Wolanow – Areiel is the managing director of Finserv Experts, an independent consultancy providing delivery and advisory leadership services in technology-enabled business transformation for banking, insurance, and financial markets worldwide. Areiel has led Blockchain implementations for global financial enterprises, such as HSBC and Lloyd's of London. He has advised central banks and financial regulators in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East on Blockchain adoption, and is currently an expert advisor for the UK Parliament's working group on Blockchain. He is passionate about financial inclusion and has spoken at the G20 about the potential of DLT and other emerging technologies to revolutionize how banking and insurance are made available in parts of the world that would derive the most benefit from them.
• Marta Piekarska – Marta serves as the director of ecosystem at Hyperledger. Prior to Hyperledger, she worked as a security architect at Blockstream. Marta obtained her BSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Warsaw University of Technology and a double master's in Computer Science and Informatics at Technical University of Berlin and Warsaw University of Technology. Her undergrad thesis was on voice encryption on android platform and grad work on GPU-aided payload delivery on Linux Kernel. Marta recently received PhD. in user-informed design of privacy tools, while working for one of the hottest Silicon Valley start-ups, Blockstream, as their security architect. As a post-doc, she also teaches and works at the Technical University of Berlin.
• Carlos Vivas Augier – Carlos is a Nicaraguan computer science engineer and global head of enterprise education at ConsenSys. He co-founded two start-ups, one was purchased and, the other acquired by one of its shareholders. He leads the Academy Program of Opinno, a tech consultancy firm, and the Spanish editors of MIT Technology Review and Harvard Business Review. He's been involved in the Blockchain space since late 2014. He has worked as a Blockchain advisor for tier 1 and large corporations from Finance, Energy, Health and Retail industries, he was awarded 2nd place in a national-level blockchain hackathon and he co-authored 2 Blockchain books with top experts from the space.
• Michael Forhez – Michael is global managing director for the Consumer Markets Industry Solutions Group at Oracle. He brings over 25 years of diversified sales, marketing, and management consulting experience to his current role. Michael is frequently called upon to write and speak on various subjects related to the consumer products and retail sectors. He serves as an evangelist within the consumer markets and has committed his career to engaging with various stakeholders to better understand and reflect their collective requirements.
• Peter Bambridge – Peter has over 30 years of experience providing consulting services and software solutions to the retail and consumer goods industries. As part of Oracle's Global Consumer Markets team, Peter focuses on emerging technologies such as Blockchain, AI, and IoT and how they can be utilized in the industry. Peter creates and maintains industry solutions that are focused on addressing specific industry needs. Previously Peter was an independent industry analyst and consultant to the retail, fashion, and consumer packaged goods industry providing recommendations and services addressing product life cycle management, sales and marketing, supply chain, and IT strategies. Prior to that, Peter worked in business development, sales, and consulting roles across a number of companies providing solutions to retail and consumer goods customers, which allowed him to acquire strong competencies in diverse areas such as supply chain, product life cycle management, ERP, planning and forecasting, with a deep expertise in the unique requirements of the retail and consumer goods sector. Peter has a BSc in Nuclear Engineering from Queen Mary University of London.
• Eric Wallace – The views, thoughts, and contributions in this book do not represent the views of the United States Air Force or the United States. Eric Wallace has spent the last 3 years independently researching and developing frameworks and architectures for distributed ledger technology solutions for both enterprise and government use cases.
• Emma McClarkin MEP – After first being elected to the European Parliament representing the East Midlands in 2009, Emma joined the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA) in early 2012. By 2014, Emma was appointed as the ECR Group Coordinator for the committee, meaning that she is the lead MEP in the Group on Trade matters. This includes the EU-US trade deal, the Trade in Services Agreement, and the EU–China Investment Agreement.

Emma has been at the forefront of opening up trade deals and modernizing some of those already in place, such as the trade pillar of the Global Agreement with Mexico and the free trade agreement with Australia. Emma also represents the ECR on the Parliament's WTO Steering Committee and both the INTA steering groups on Brexit and the US.

Emma works extensively on policy relating to emerging technologies and the Digital Single Market. As part of her work on INTA, she was the first MEP to publish an Own Initiative report that considers the use of Blockchain in a specific policy area. Emma is also a Substitute Member of the Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee and Culture and Education Committee. As part of these portfolios, Emma has worked on cybersecurity, Copyright in the Digital Single Market and most recently the EU regulation to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online.

As part of her expertise in Blockchain policymaking, Emma has spoken at and worked with several organizations and industry stakeholders including the European Centre for International Political Economy, Allied for Startups, and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain in the House of Commons.

Before my election to Parliament in 2017, I must confess that my knowledge of Blockchain technology was underdeveloped. Of course, I knew of cryptocurrencies – who didn't? Stories of people trading Bitcoin and making huge fortunes and losses were and continue to be widely reported. I certainly had little appreciation of the enormous importance of the Blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies and how it has the potential to radically change our society. It may seem surprising, therefore, to find myself as the chairman of an exciting and active APPG in the heart of UK politics.

The reason behind my decision to set up the APPG was simple – I wanted to make government more efficient and believed that Blockchain was an opportunity to achieve this. A chance conversation with a colleague who was waxing lyrical about Blockchain technology got me intrigued, and I knew I had to act, thus the APPG for Blockchain was established.

In seeking to make a worthy contribution I wanted to establish a group that reached out to experts. Facilitated by the Big Innovation Centre, our first meeting received an overwhelming attendance. It was at this meeting that I met the author of this book, Antony Welfare, who became a board advisor to the APPG.

Antony's enthusiasm for the possibilities of Blockchain technology on many areas from the economy, industry, and society is profound. It is this enthusiasm and characteristically easy-to-understand style that makes this book such an invaluable resource.

In a world where there is much contention around data and who controls it, this book clearly asserts how this can work in favour of the consumer. Key to this are the constant themes of openness and transparency, and the persuasive argument that if we want to see the benefits of this technology then we must embrace change.

A leader in retail with a wide range of experience, Antony takes the reader on a journey. This is made all the more vivid by his use of his fictional retailer the ‘Antony Stores Group’ to illustrate the use cases. The ‘how’ and ‘why’ we would use Blockchain help the reader to visualize the real potential of this technology.

This in-depth, yet easy to understand, book is a must for those that want to gain a greater insight into the practical, yet transformative, potential of Blockchain.

Damien Moore MP
Damien Moore MP – Member of Parliament for Southport and Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Blockchain.

Once the widespread potential of Blockchain was understood, people began to see their life through the lens of this technology. With Blockchain you can solve this problem, with Blockchain you can solve that…Blockchain as the panacea to all our problems. This was – and I would say that in some cases it is still – the attitude of innovators and early adaptors when asked what they think about Blockchain. This euphoria was reflected in the price of Bitcoin, touching US$20,000 in December 2017, with US$7.4 billion raised by start-ups though token sales in 2017 alone.

Then, someone began to realize that perhaps moving ‘from theory to practice’ in Blockchain still has a long way to go. Indeed, Bitcoin – which was expected by the ‘maximalists’ to supplant VISA or Mastercard – is capable of supporting only around seven transactions per second. Visa's network can handle about 24,000 transactions a second. Hopes are high, but so too are the obstacles. Scalability, limited consumer adoption, regulatory uncertainty, and a lack of standards are just a few of the many challenges that are hindering the mass adoption of digital currencies and Blockchain.¹

According to the technology life cycle, we have just exited the Embryonic phase, characterized by hype and overexcitement, and we are now into the era of Ferment, with its technology variations, rivalry and competition, and technical uncertainty in which user preferences are not clear. Indeed, if you asked me how many Blockchains have so far been implemented and do actually exist I would have some difficulty in providing the exact figure. New Blockchains enter the market every day. We can say that there are roughly fifty different consensus mechanisms (the engine of the blockchain) and about two thousand unique tokens and digital currencies. And there are still other, proprietary Blockchains which are tokenless and often private.

Each new Blockchain promises better throughput, higher levels of security, more privacy. In this complex space it is very difficult to differentiate accurately and to assess the quality of each technological component. What is generally needed is a Blockchain matrix or analytical framework.²

According to the Gartner Hype Cycle model we are ‘sliding into the trough of disillusionment’ where companies become impatient as they realize that the new technology is not a panacea for all their problems. Blockchain technology is characterized as having poor performance, slow industry adoption, and lacking a clear value proposition. As industry experts and the media emphasize these challenges rather than the opportunities of the technology, we enter into a long period in which companies fail to deliver on projects and investors become more prudent and risk adverse.

The period of enlightenment and productive adoption of Blockchain – in which early adopters gain experience with the new technology, best practices emerge and its real-world value becomes accepted by industry – is still ahead of us. But we are gaining ground every day.

Additional steps are needed if we are to reach the critical point of mass adoption, as happened in the past with other innovations. In principle, a sound regulatory framework and the creation of common standards would boost trust in Blockchain technology and digital tokens, and stimulate investment. In addition, rejecting the hypothesis that one chain will rule them all – indeed, different communities of Blockchain users deserve different governing laws and different Blockchain protocols provide an answer to those different needs – interoperability will also need to be addressed to enable Blockchains to exchange information with each other.

For these reasons a book that introduces well thought-out examples of strategic applications of Blockchain in the real world is timely and well placed to assist entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators to move quickly from the phase of disillusionment to the richly rewarding phase of productivity and adoption. Commercializing Blockchain aims to raise awareness of the promises and perils of Blockchain technologies by

1. taking a snapshot of the current state-of-the-art in order to draw a line between past and future applications;
2. helping businesses and individuals to understand the real impact of Blockchain and how it could disrupt entire markets and industrial processes;
3. guiding its readers to a full understanding of how to use Blockchain technologies; and
4. imagining how society will adapt itself to Blockchain and what it might look like 20 years from now.

In a space that moves as quickly as Blockchain, it is useful to pause and reflect on how the evolution of this technology has brought us to the present day – what has worked, what has not – to better map out where Blockchain is going next. Commercializing Blockchain is a key part of that vital discussion and will be equally useful to veterans of the space and to those only just beginning to discover this technology.

Paolo Tasca

Welcome to Commercializing Blockchain: Strategic Applications in the Real World. I became part of the Blockchain world in 2016 and I have been obsessed with this exciting new world ever since.

Imagine a world where the data that we produce on a daily, if not hourly, basis is ‘owned’ by us – it is our data and we choose what it is used for and where it is transferred….

Imagine a world where you can ‘scan’ my shirt and it will tell you the cotton plant it started from, the cotton mill where the cotton was spun, the shirt factory where it was sewn together, and the journey it took to my wardrobe….

Imagine a world where you ‘scan’ a bottle of champagne, and it shows a beautiful video of where the grapes were picked, how they were harvested, how the champagne was fermented, and how the bottle was rested over its lifetime….

Imagine buying your forever home and being able to fully track all the previous owners, the changes made and the records of all alterations made during its hundred year life….

Imagine no more – these are all real possibilities for Blockchain technology to fundamentally transform our lives.

This ground-breaking technology will allow us to own more of our data, see more transparently than ever before and trust more in our governments and businesses.

We are at the beginning of the next revolution, where Blockchain technology will lead the world into new and exciting opportunities, with the key values baked into the heart of the Blockchain technology: Trust and Transparency.

We will be able to ‘own our own data’ and see where our data is being used transparently. We will have visibility on our digital footprint and ensure that the truth is seen and facts are never deleted.

I am a passionate ‘Blockchainer’ and I understand how Blockchain technology will transform our lives over the next 20 years. We are only at the beginning of the revolution – maybe at 0.8 or 0.9 at the moment, but we will move quickly to 1.0 and beyond.

The technology is ready, the people and process are the stumbling blocks and these are where the world needs to focus – changes are difficult for humans and we need to be open to this new technology, which will give us more trust and transparency in the world around us.

In this book, I focus on how I believe Blockchain technology will revolutionize all our lives through moving forward our tired and complex systems, to quicker and more efficient systems, simultaneously allowing us to establish a level of trust and transparency that has been lost in the current world.

There is an exciting world ahead powered by Blockchain technology and your journey begins here with my book.

Please enjoy the ride (and my book) and please feel free to interact with me in the digital world @AntonyWelfare and Commercializingblockchain.com.

Many thanks and best wishes to you all.

Antony Welfare
April 2019
Commercializingblockchain.com

Commercializing Blockchain

Welcome to Commercializing Blockchain, which has been written to steer you through the exciting and transformational new world built on Blockchain and other groundbreaking technologies.

My interest in Blockchain started in February 2016 when I asked a colleague, ‘What is Bitcoin? And why are retailers not using it?’ Little did I know that this one conversation would open my mind to the revolutionary potential of Blockchain technology.

I spent three months researching, discussing, and finding out how Blockchain worked, using books, online research, and attending meetups. During this research I came across Ethereum and started to research Ethereum in depth. (Ethereum is a Blockchain on which many different use cases of Blockchain have been built and is one of the biggest Blockchain solutions in the market at the moment.)

The book is split into 14 chapters covering all parts of Blockchain technology from a business and use case perspective. I am not a technical developer; I am a business leader who understands the potential of Blockchain technology and how it can transform governments, businesses, enterprises, and communities.

The book is not meant to be a technical guide to Blockchain, its purpose is to help you understand the uses of the technology, especially in enterprise and business. My background as an accountant and strategist leans the book towards practical advice, information, and ideas – I am a straightforward author giving you my extensive experience and thoughts around this exciting new technology.

I have also brought you some of the best thought leaders from the Blockchain world, who have written parts of the book, to give you their opinions, expertise, and explanations of some of the concepts in depth. Their support is vital to give you a great understanding of how Blockchain technologies will revolutionize governments, communities, and business.

Antony Stores Group (ASG) Retail Business Illustration

Throughout the book we will be using our own fictional retail business called ‘Antony Stores Group’ or ‘ASG’. This is a large retail business experiencing many of the issues retailers and brands face in the current world.

Using ASG, we will illustrate the uses of Blockchain technology in a highly complex retailer. See more details about ASG in the next section.

Real-World Enterprise Level Use Cases – Financial Services, Retail, Supply Chain, and CPG

The final section of Commercializing Blockchain will take you through a few live use cases which are happening in late 2018 and early 2019. These are areas where Blockchain technology is making the biggest impact today and where we are experiencing many different projects, proofs of concept, trials, and implementations.

These use cases will of course be out of date by the time you read this, but they are real use cases, happening or have happened. This is important to review as this will show you where to look for the start of your journey on the Blockchain revolution.

Who Will Benefit from Reading Commercializing Blockchain?

The book is written as a practical guide to Blockchain. Anybody who wants to understand what Blockchain is, and how it will transform the world, will enjoy the book and learn from this.

If you are a commercial business, you will gain from my extensive network of people and resources looking at Blockchain on a daily basis – few people in the world have an extensive and comprehensive Blockchain network like mine.

Antony Stores Group (ASG) Illustration

History of ASG

Founded on 23 March 1923, ASG started out as a provisions store in Sidcup, Kent, UK. Originally named after the original owner H. H. Chapman (my great-grandfather) and selling a wide range of provisions from its double-fronted shop on the high street.

During the twentieth century, it opened over 250 stores across the UK. By the turn of the millennium, the business was thriving, and acquired a high street clothing retailer in 2001. This immediately gave the group 200 new clothing stores to add to the grocery store estate.

In 2002, the chain rebranded to ‘Antony Stores Group’, and the business looked to integrate the two brands into one and started to build synergies between both retailers, especially with the backend systems and supply chains.

Stores were merged and relocated to have food and clothing in the one store. Fresh food was removed from the range, and home products were added. ASG became a retailer of clothing, ambient food, and homewares.

In 2003, ASG launched its online channel, to adapt to the competition and expand its footprint digitally.

During the next 10 years, ASG expanded into Europe, opening over 400 stores in 10 European countries, expanding the UK stores to 400, and launching the ‘ASG Card’ for loyalty across the group.

By 2013, ASG was taking over 10% of sales online and started to look at reducing its UK store portfolio, in line with the growth of online shopping. The group turnover broke the £10bn mark during this year, as online continued to grow thanks to the group’s Omnichannel strategy.

By 2018, ASG comprised:

• £14bn turnover
• 75,000 employees
• 250 UK stores
• 300 European stores
• 25% of sales from Online across Europe
• 10,000 SKUs (3000 Food, 2000 Home, 5000 Clothing)
• 2100 direct suppliers (500 Food, 600 Home, 1000 Clothing)
• 170 warehouses across Europe (100 Food, 30 Home, 40 Clothing).

Let's look at the current challenges for ASG, and during the rest of the book we will reference these, to show how Blockchain technology will revolutionize retailers and supply chains.