A*Star Singapore-BMBF Germany Workshop on Blockchain, jointly organized by A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) Singapore and BMBF(Federal Ministry of Education and Research) Germany, was held in Singapore on October 15, 2018. The workshop aims at commercial and academic collaboration, attracting a number of blockchain industry experts, scholars and scientists. Brand names such as DHL, National University Hospital (NUH) were also speaking in this workshop. LINFINITY CEO Anndy Lian was invited and delivered a keynote speech themed Blockchain: An Enabler for Supply Chain.
Anndy said that blockchain industry has finally come to a more rational stage, the commercialization and development of actual use cases has become the most important task for the industry. Despite there are tons of projects in this industry, he believes that the underlying reason why it is so hard for those projects to ‘land’ is that most of them fail to catch the pain points and cater to the needs of the traditional industries. He pointed out that the commercialization of blockchain projects must be market-oriented in order to better promote the sound development of the blockchain industry.
In his speech, he introduced the business logic of LINFINITY’s blockchain anti-counterfeiting ecosystem to the audience: “What LINFINITY wants to do is to reduce the fake and unqualified products in the market, especially in the medicine and health product industries. If this problem does not meet appropriate solution, not only it will damage the brand image, but also there will be huge potential health risks.” Anndy Lian explains: “The core of LINFINITY’s technology is to get the product information on chain. We pack and upload the information in the supply chain onto the LINFINITY blockchain. When customers buy a product, they can obtain the information of the product, including raw materials, country of origin, production date, batch number, flow information and so on, by scanning QR code with the LINFINITY’s Dapp. When problems occurred in the product purchased, the root cause of the problems can be traced through the traceability function of LINFINITY blockchain, which makes the accountability and recovery clear. ” At the moment, LINFINITY is working on a customizing information on chain service for Scientific Tradition (Jingkang Bao, a Singaporean Ganoderma lucidum health brand), which symbolizes as a milestone for the commercialization of LINFINITY.
In the panel discussion, Anndy Lian joined the discussion with professors from Singapore and Germany and DHL, a well-known international logistics company, to discuss the business landing of blockchain in fields of manufacturing, logistics and supply chain.
Human talent is the key to the door of Blockchain
“In the blockchain industry, talent is key,” he said. “After visiting many different countries and markets, you will find that people’s perspective on the blockchain industry is very different from that of the traditional industry. Current participants in blockchain are more interested in token speculation instead of the value of the project itself. This industry needs to be developed in a down-to-earth and step-by-step approach. There should also be government regulations and policies to better industry regulation.”
Blockchain is not about making choices
When been asked that “The anti-counterfeiting systems in traditional industries are already very matured, is the blockchain techonology truly necessary?”, Anndy mentions that solving problems (anti counterfeiting) are not about choosing between traditional anti-counterfeiting systems and the blockchain. Both must work hand in hand. We also need to note that blockchain anti-counterfeiting and traceability does not mean submitting all information onto the ‘chain’, it completely depends on the needs of the enterprise.
We will never stop on searching for partners
“Blockchain technology cannot solve all problems, and we need more partners.” Anndy says, “Let me take an example. Lets say there is a korean cosmetic company wants to work with us, and they are now using the DHL logistics system, what should LINFINITY do? Instead of making a logistics system to replace DHL, why don’t we work with them? To open up our API to them, so they can put the information onto our chain. When it comes to the token, we need to look at it more appropriately. LINFINITY’s tokens LFT is made for the whole ecosystem, for example, the South Korean cosmetics brand uses LFT to buy services from DHL.”
At the end of the seminar, Anndy concluded that: “We need to know that no technology can develop just on its own. We are not here to exaggerate its power or value, although the blockchain industry is beginning to attract the attention of many enterprises.” To completely eliminate the problem of counterfeit goods, we must also integrate Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, big data and other technologies to upgrade the traditional supply chain. Thanks to the vigorous development of 5G, there will be more and more data collected by the future Internet of Things. These information and data can be stored on the blockchain, screened and processed by AI. With all these technologies working together, LINFINITY will provide the best solution for our business partners. This will be the final form of the LINFINITY supply chain anti-counterfeiting traceability ecosystem, which is also known as ‘Second era of smart supply chain ecosystem, and LINFINITY will make unremitting efforts to make this happen.”
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.
