We’re Not Sure What Blockchain Is, but Apparently It Can Make Fashion Way Less Evil

Blockchain – one of the world’s most talked about technologies, but also one of the most confusing – could actually do a lot of good in the fashion world. And Fashionista, doing the lord’s work, has laid out those benefits in the “most understandable terms possible.”

The most tangible boon, the story posits, would be a radical boost in transparency. Because blockchain works like a decentralized, constantly updating ledger (or so it’s been explained), every recorded entry gets backed up hundreds of thousands of times, which would ensure accountability at every step.

And two companies, Provenance and SourceMap, “envision a world in which every fashion or beauty product has traceable, transparent origins — and they’re using blockchain’s tamper-resistant record-keeping to push that agenda forward.”

SourceMap, the story says, has developed a network “that allows everyone from the farmer to the textile mill to the cut-and-sew factory to communicate directly with the brand that buys from them,” while Provenance provided the blockchain technology to “verify those communications.”

“The benefit arises from the fact that organic or Fair Trade certifications can’t be faked, brands can’t deny having worked with factories after news of human rights abuses at those factories surface and auditors can essentially trace any claim about a product back to the entity who first made that claim,” and crucially, no sensitive personal data is compromised along the way.

“Tremendous leaps in accountability have come about because of this new technology,” SourceMap founder Leonardo Bonanni told Fashionista. “It basically allows brands to be in touch with their suppliers, and their suppliers’ suppliers, and their suppliers’ suppliers’ suppliers.”

There is a “but,” however. None of this actually works without companies buying into the tech. “In short: for brands that prefer to look the other way when opaque supply chains lead to human rights abuses, blockchain won’t change anything.” But those that actually want to address the issue now have the tools to do so.

“I think it’s not a far cry to think that in 2019 you’ll start to have mass-produced garments being traceable to the individual batch,” Bonnani said. “And that’s only going to be possible through blockchain.”

You can read more about it at Fashionista.

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