“With a QR, Customers of fresh meat and vegetables can trace the authentic information of foods’ production, purchase, process, transportation and storage. These information can’t be tampered with then costumers will just feel a sense of safety. Clients who have purchased diamond jewelry can read from a chip of the diamond for how jewelry have gone all the way from manufacturing place to customs and to the jewelry shop. The chip will only match the identification of the owner. Thus any illegal trade or counterfeit product will be detected immediately.”

This is the scenario described by Jingdong, one of the biggest online shopping platform in the world.

Block chain (Blockchain) refers to decentralized and technical solutions method to collectively maintain a reliable database. The data cannot be tampered with, and are traceable, cheap, highly efficient and highly secure. Thougve been actively involved in Blockchain technology research and promotion. Jingdong, combining with its own unique advantages of the retail supply chain, has actively carried out a series of researches to explore possibility to build rich application scenarios and thus has accumulated R & D experiences, which have been recognized by Blockchain experts from IBM and Stanford.h still in the early stages of development, Blockchain is considered to lead the future as one of the important emerging technologies.

The smart contracts based on Blockchain technology can digitalize the contracts between Jingdong and retailers on it. The smart contracts can help achieve automatic payment, penalty charge, which previously need human labor to check repeatedly. This will greatly save human costs, shorten the payment cycle, improve accuracy and avoid irregularities. At the same time,as the data on Blockchain are immutable and traceable, there will be no need for trading parties to worry that trading records could be tampered with, unable to be disclosed or open to an irrelevant third party.

Zhang Cuifang, Director of IBM Greater China retail market development said:

“In October this year, by collaborating with Tsinghua University and Wal-Mart, IBM has explored the Blockchain plan to trace the supply chain of pork and has made some progress. I think Jingdong, as China’s largest online shoping platform, will see great potential in using Blockchain technology. IBM has been committed to building a cooperation on Blockchain basis and look forward to be partner with companies interested to accelerate the real application of Blockchain technology.”

Yu Yongli, Jingdong’s Senior Director supply chain has said:

“In the future, Jingdong will deepen its communication the enterprises and research institutions such as IBM and Stanford. This will help different parties to make the best of their resources to jointly promote the commercial application of Blockchain technology including counterfeit-proof products,  smart contract and order fulfillment.”

8btc news has reported Jingdong’s efforts in Blockchain technology. see: China’s JingDong to Build Big Data Ecosystem using Blockchain Technology