VeChain Review

VeChain is a blockchain platform designed for supply chain management processes. Its mission is “to enhance a trust-free and distributed enterprise ecosystem for enabling a free flow of information, high-speed value transfer, and efficient collaboration”.

VeChain’s key difference from other crypto networks is the platform’s purpose to pool all sectors together.

It allows users to send cash on a peer to peer basis, as well as to monitor and track agriculture, retail, auto and information on other sectors using its public ledger. VeChain is a good way for verifying products before making a purchase. The platform gives retailers and consumers the ability to determine the quality and authenticity of products.

The company aims to connect blockchain technology to the real world by providing a comprehensive governance structure, a robust economic model as well as advanced IoT integration, and pioneers in real world applications.

As a project, VeChain began in 2007. VeChain coin, VET or VEN, launched in 2015. The CEO of the company is Sunny Lu. The company has established offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Paris, and Tokyo.

Sunny Lu leads the team as CEO. Majority of Lu’s career, was spent leading IT and Information System projects of several luxury brands. Most impressively, he was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Louis Vuitton China.

Other notable members of the management team include the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Jie Zhang, who has 17 years experience in IT assurance and ultimately Kevin Feng, Chief Operating Officer (COO), who has over 12 years experiences of consulting and assurance services in cybersecurity, privacy and emerging technology.

Overall, VeChain has around 40 developers, with the number still climbing.

VeChain utilizes the blockchain to provide benefits for a range of industries, addressing a specific concern associated with each particular sector while providing following solution.

Cold-chain logistics

VeChain’s cold-chain logistics solution uses proprietary IoT devices to track key metrics throughout the entire journey. VeChain embeds data management and sharing in every process, making cold-chain logistics transparent, regulated, secure and reliable.

Automobile

VeChain creates a digital passport of a vehicle recording all data including its repair history, insurance, registration and even driver behaviour throughout the cars’ lifecycle. VeChain puts data into the hands of owners, making it management comprehensive, accessible and transparent.

Medical & Healthcare

VeChain’s blockchain solution can track end-to-end medical devices production process. Besides, with the patient’s authorization, VeChain can help patients to safely share their biometrics data with their doctors, enabling real-time monitoring. VeChain makes the production and use of medical devices safer, better regulated, efficient and reliable.

Luxury & Fashion

VeChain embeds smart chips within luxury goods. Brands can monitor sales channels in real time, able to prevent illegal overstock trading. Meanwhile, consumers can verify the authenticity of the luxury products. VeChain puts control back into the hands of the brands, making luxury trail transparent, seamless and data-driven.

Liquor

VeChain created an authentication & tracking platform for wine bottles. Data for a specific wine bottle can be tracked through every step of the production process, as it’s stored on the blockchain. It also allows logistic providers and distributors to store relevant data before it reaches its destination.

Agriculture

VeChain provides the solution of blockchain-enabled cloud services for the certification of environmentally friendly and organic agriculture products. Throughout the production process, IoT sensors and mobile devices send feedback on climate and soil conditions which are then updated into the cloud for real-time monitoring. This data is then encrypted, becoming immutable while at the same time, can be easily accessed by relevant parties with proper authorization and private keys. Such data collection can help agriculture companies make better decisions. They can improve on the planting method, by identifying the quantity and quality of the crops, increasing their product margins. In addition, it can minimize the negative impact of fertilizer and pesticide use to the environment.

Logistics

By leveraging on blockchain technology, various parties in the logistics cycles can access information on a transparent and immutable and yet very secure platform with a private key. In addition, logistics service providers can now manage goods at the granularity of single units for the very first time. The VeChain platform can provide customers with better services, accurate logistics information of each single product which means there is potential for development of new logistics and business models.

VeChain says its targets cannot be achieved without VeChain Tokens. VeChain or the VEN, was officially rebranded to VeChain Thor (VET) in February 2018. According to cryptocurrency authority CoinMarketCap.com, VET is the 16th largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of over $1.8 billion and a daily transaction volume of $74 million.

Forty-one percent of the total tokens were distributed during the VeChain token crowdsale, with the profits going to the operation of the VeChain Foundation, such as development, finance, marketing, and legal advisory.

A further 23 percent of tokens were allocated to enterprise investors who will use it as a development target for their business. An additional 12 percent of tokens went towards the continuous operation of the system, as well as technological development. Nine percent goes to private investors, 10 percent to business implementations, and the remaining 5 percent to the development team and co-founders.

VET cannot be purchased with fiat currency so, it’s necessary to make an initial purchase in another currency. The easiest to buy are Bitcoin or Ethereum - with a look to subsequently trading them for VET at an exchange. The token is currently listed on Binance, Huobi, Lbank, Coinnest, Liqui, Kucoin, HitBTC, EtherDelta, COSS and VNBIG. BitMart was the latest trading platform to list VET.

Partners list

VEN was the first cryptocurrency to make a deal with the Chinese government as it became the blockchain technology partner of the regional government of Guiyang. It also started developing technology solutions for China’s tobacco monopoly through partnership with China's National Research Consulting Center (NRCC).

It has also partnered with PricewaterhouseCoopers, DNV GL, BMW, Michigan State University, and Oxford University Math. for example, PWC helped VeChain create its first accredited cryptocurrency disaster recovery plan.

DNV GL has partnered with VeChain back in January 2018, where their partnership was justified by the need of DNV GL for blockchain-based technology. Since the company needed a cost-effective and highly functional way of tracking assets, they decided that the best way of enabling this feature would be to use the technological capabilities of VeChain.

Now DNV GL has announced his plans to invest in VeChain. The amount of the initial investment was not revealed to the public as both parties decided to keep it in private.

From VEN to VET. Rebranding

In January 2018, Sunny Lu has announced that VeChain (VEN) will be rebranded and released as VeChain Thor (VET) the next month, becoming a token that is essential for running a Masternode to earn Thor Power in exchange. The rebranding is said to help strengthen their core vision by enhancing security, and promoting self-circulation and expansion.

The blockchain began trading as VEN at the end of August 2017. Its value rose from under one dollar to more than $4.5. VEN was the only one among the top 20 cryptocurrencies that did not show negative returns in the first three months of 2018, instead gaining 28 percent. In April 2018, it was the 17th largest cryptocurrency.

Cryptosecurity

VeChain is one of the most secure cryptocurrency networks out there. The network was established on the premise of providing a comprehensive ecosystem that every user and nodes could rely on to operate without worrying about attacks. The development team has managed to deliver on this promise since no attack successful were recorded since the cryptocurrency was launched.

To ensure the security of users’ assets, VeChain uses proof-of-importance algorithm, working with a highly tech-savvy development team, releasing regular updates to seal loopholes when they emerge, as well as encrypts all transactions.

VeChain has recently unveiled its upgraded Whitepaper and Development Plan, leading VEN token value to rise by 5%.

Currently VeChain is developing its own blockchain, for now it is an ERC20 token, running on the Ethereum blockchain.

The first VET token issued on the VeChainThor blockchain were sold privately on May 25 by a blockchain-based gaming media platform Plair.

Plair is a Vechain Foundation project planned to create an ecosystem for gamers, where they can play games, communicate, watch game-play and use different tools for improving user-end experience.

Patrick Tang, the CEO of Plair Foundation, commented on ICO in a Medium announcement post:

By Bob Loxley