Louis Vuitton Owner LVMH Is Launching a Blockchain to Track Luxury Goods

Published on by Coindesk | Published on

Luxury brand conglomerate LVMH, owner of the iconic Louis Vuitton label, is preparing to launch a blockchain for proving the authenticity of high-priced goods, CoinDesk has learned.

Code-named AURA, the cryptographic provenance platform is expected to go live in May or June with Louis Vuitton and another LVMH brand, Parfums Christian Dior.

To LVMH 's other 60-plus luxury brands, and eventually those of its competitors.

LVMH has enlisted a full-time blockchain team who have been in stealth mode for over a year, working closely with ethereum design studio ConsenSys and Microsoft Azure, according to two people familiar with the project.

Stepping back, LVMH controls over 60 luxury brands including many well-known names like Dior, Dom Pérignon and Hublot.

According to the source involved in the project, LVMH questioned why it would allow third parties to position themselves between its brands and their partners - especially since blockchain is supposed to be a technology for eliminating intermediaries.

LVMH intends to offer the service in a white-label form to other brands including the group's competitors.

"So if you are a customer of a luxury brand, you are not going to see AURA; you are going to see the Louis Vuitton app or the app of another luxury brand," the source explained.

Experienced by the blockchain venture between IBM and Maersk, LVMH will donate all intellectual property to a separate entity and that entity, in turn, will be owned by the participating brands, said the source, who added,.

It's not surprising LVMH chose an enterprise variety of ethereum since it's the blockchain which gave birth to the ERC-721 non-fungible token standard.

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