EY creates the Wine Blockchain with the goal of certifying and communicating the quality and geographical origin of wines made in Italy. Involved in this project also the EzLab startup.
Thanks to a partnership between EY and EzLab, the Wine Blockchain was born to certify the whole traceability of wine production, allowing to guarantee quality, provenance and production.
How it works
This is the first case of a digital relationship between the producer and final customer who - thanks to a smart label on the wine bottle - can read about the wine producer (identified by a digital signature), the entire process of cultivation, production and processing of wine maximizing the trust of the consumer.
This process happens thanks to the Blockchain technology that provides all the information linked to the product so the consumer can verify its origin, organoleptic characteristics and the entire agri-food and industrial process anytime, by using his/her own smartphone to scan the QR Code printed on the wine label.
The first tracked and certified product is the Falanghina Wine produced by Cantina Volpone. In a few days, you will be able to buy their wines online too.
This “digital ID card” is an opportunity to fight against the dumping in prices created by foreign products or "fake Italian" and to create a recognition and promotion mode for Made in Italy wines.
The Ethereum Blockchain
Wine Blockchain uses a smart contract built on top of the Ethereum Blockchain.
This smart contract contains all the info that have been collected along the production process.
Gerardo Gabriele Volpone, Digital and Innovation Consultant, Volpone Winery Director, says:
"The whole thing was tied to the physical world through the registration of the digital signature of the company owner so that there is not another individual who can be able to register something by using the Volpone name.”
There is a worldwide growing interest of consumers in the products: 74 percent claim to be affected by the purchase by the search for traceability information and 60 percent controls the product labels.
Also, nine out of ten consumers said they would like to know more about Italian wines and their certification criteria and more than 70 percent would be willing to pay a higher price if there was a guarantee of transparency and provenance.