Waltonchain is a blockchain based business that aims to revolutionise the supply chain into a reliable, decentralised, transparent system. The coin itself will be the single currency on which the Walton ecosystem will grow, as any businesses (child chains) that want to join Waltonchain (parent chain) will need to spend Walton coins to become known, and therefore expand. Waltonchain is using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to implement into their clothing system integrating scheme, which aims to solve storage and after-sale service problems for the traditional clothing industry. They are naming it ‘phase 1.0’ of their 4-phase development plan. From this point onwards they will use their idea of a combined Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain to unify their scheme with the modern world finishing with a complete asset ownership solution.
The Basics of Waltonchain
To understand Waltonchain you have to understand the supply chain, which is responsible for the quality of any physical product you buy from a business. The supply chain can be summed up as the system in place that is responsible for how we move a product from the manufacturer to the consumer, from components to production to transportation. So what’s this got to do with Waltonchain? Well, it’s easy to say that this is the process a product goes through before you purchase it, but how can you be sure? This product could be counterfeit, and at the time of writing this the global losses due to counterfeit products is estimated at $400 billion. Walton chain addresses this concern with their RFID tags, each of these tags has a single product that they travel with through the supply chain; production, warehousing, logistics and the store.
What is RFID?
The RFID technology is a communication technology that can transmit data. It works mostly the same as a credit card or a bar code, except it doesn’t need line of sight or physical interaction to work. The identification system can be split up into tags and readers. The RFID tags that are embedded in the product and are the part of the system needed to be identified, these tags use two-way radio transmitters in conjunction with the readers to send signals to one another. It’s the exact technology used in contactless payment method in newer debit and and credit cards.
How does this all work with Waltonchain?
Waltonchain has joined the concept of blockchain technology with Internet of Things to output a brand new business ecosystem which will utilise RFID. Imagine you own a clothing company, like any other company you will take inventory of these clothes. However when you hear about Waltonchain, you decide to leave the inventory to them, giving them the information they need to use their RFID and blockchain technology to take inventory of your items for you. With a unique RFID tag embedded into every item of clothing in the production line, it can automatically track the item’s progress through the supply chain and upload this to the blockchain in real time every step of the way. This process will allow you to see precisely what journey the product has made, and as every RFID tag is part of the blockchain it is extremely difficult to tamper with.
However there can be no guarantees that there will never be any problems, but if there is an issue such as a hack the distributed blockchain technology will be able to tell you precisely where that drawback happened as Waltonchain provides a public ledger. This is much easier than realising 100 pairs of trousers have gone missing, and having no idea where that happened.
RFID tags are miniature (Waltonchain claims they are 0.001g) and extremely hard to remove without damaging them, this is something that Waltonchain is working on making even more difficult to do.
Inventory is just the beginning
The benefits of Waltonchain go beyond precision and accuracy in tracking, Waltonchain’s new proposition, the Value Internet of Things (VIoT), is their way of improving upon the Internet of Things (IoT). In Waltonchain’s whitepaper they talk about the issues they have with the IoT, suggesting that the biggest issue is centralisation and due to today’s IoT devices being controlled by different networks and businesses, we can never reach true interconnection of all things. These different networks will never totally be able to smoothly cooperating with each other, because of issues such as distrust of one another and difficulty integrating their complex networks together.
VIoT brings forward the idea that with the blockchain, this can be solved. As we know, the blockchain is an open source ledger with every transaction publicly recorded. So through hosting each IoT network on the blockchain, and the VIoT supplying all these different centralised devices with decentralised access to the blockchain, trust related issues and complexities in networks will be solved. Transactions that could not usually work due to centralised networks are now made possible through every transaction being recorded in the blockchain.
Where does Walton coin (WTC) come into this?
Waltonchain can be split up into two parts, the parent chain (Waltonchain) and the child (sub) chains, which are any business owners that want to use the distributed blockchain ledger and the RFID technology. The business owner in question needs to expend Walton coins to create its child chain(s). These child chains can come in many different form, such as production child chain, storage child chain, or logistics child chain. You do not have to apply for the privilege to create a child chain, it is totally down to the Waltonchain ecosystem user to spend WTC and issue its own child chain.
The final aim of Waltonchain is to simplify and increased the reliability of the worldwide logistics system and eventually have a completely secure, blockchain based system for most logistics, intelligent packaging and asset ownership.
Roadmap
Waltonchain don’t have a traditional roadmap. Instead they’re using a 4 part project phase. Currently they are in phase 1.
Phase 1 - Aiming to solve the clothing logistic problem using RFID based tags on retail clothes. This is to help solve problems in storage, retail shops and after-sale service. Phase 1 also serves to prove the concept works and aid in expansion.
Phase 2 - Increase production of the RFID tags and implement the system for a full path logistic system. For example it will be used in store pickup, pricing, order placing, packing and storage, sorting and distribution, store management, dispatching, customer signature, customer assessment and feedback.
Phase 3 - Full scale implementation of the logistics system to allow all processes in a products history to be traced. In addition to this manufacturers will be able to use tractable and customisable intelligent packaging.
Phase 4 - Implementation of asset information collection to help solve trust issues and traceability problems.
Team
The Waltonchain team comprises of a group of highly skilled and experienced members that specialise in blockchain, Internet of Things and RFID technology. There are members from both the Chinese and Korean business, technology and investment sectors, with many members being senior members with years of experience.
For example, one of the founders of Waltonchain is Do Sanghyuk who has an impressive background that includes working as the Vice Chairman of the China - Korea Cultural Exchange development Committee (a proprietary institution of President Moon Jae-in). In addition to this he has also worked as the Chairman of the Korea NC Technology Co. and has also been the Senior Reporter of IT Today News.
Trading Information
Waltonchain primarily uses a currency called Walton Coin (WTC). 100 million Waltoncoin were issued with the first block of the Waltonchain blockchain. No more are set to be created. There are roughly 70 million in supply and the rest of the Walton coin can be mined. Technically, Waltonchain is a Proof of Stake system and intends to pay out dividends to major stakeholders in WTC.
The Walton coin price started at roughly $1 and had a fairly turbulent run especially around early 2018. There have been spikes and dips relating to total market fluctuations and certain partnerships that Waltonchain managed to acquire. See Cryptos Decoded for more information.
How to Buy Walton Coin (WTC Coin)
The most popular platform to buy Waltoncoin is Binance. Binance allow you to exchange BTC and ETH for WTC.
We’ve recently written a beginners’ guide to Binance in our full Binance Review. Read that for more information.
Waltonchain also recently partnered with Coinnest, a Korean crypto exchange where WTC coin is also available to buy.
How to Store Walton Coin (WTC Coin)
At the moment Waltoncoin is an ERC20 token that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. That mean you can use any ERC20 compatible wallet, including MyEtherWallet, the Ledger Nano S hardware wallet or the KeepKey hardware wallet.
In the future Waltonchain will split from the Ethereum network and run their own full blockchain. This means that Walton Coin will need to be stored on another wallet. This will likely be Waltonchain’s own wallet. So look out for that.
Competition
VeChain is a major competitor of Waltonchain as they are both aiming to do very similar things with the use of blockchain technology to solve supply chain problems.
VeChain are initially aiming at luxury goods and use NFC and QR codes as well as standard RFID. In addition to this VeChain intend to implement DApps. These will serve the same purpose as Waltonchain’s sub chains but are architecturally very different.
Wabi Coin and Walimai are also looking to help solve supply chain problems, but WaBi coin will be aimed more at the anti-counterfeit market, initially focusing on baby foods.
Our Opinion on Waltonchain
We think that Waltonchain is a solid project with a lot of potential. There are a lot of very experienced people working on it and the concept and plan is incredibly ambitious. We think if they can deliver on, even one or two of their promises then it looks like they’ll be very successful.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Great team of over 20 highly experienced members, including good advisors and investors.
- Waltonchain has developed substantial partnerships with governments and large companies.
- The idea of sub chains that work off of the main Waltonchain could potentially be huge if implemented and adopted successfully.
Cons
- Still in the very early stages with a long way to go.
- Marketing could definitely be better.
Conclusion
Waltonchain is a very exciting project that has a lot of potential to revolutionise the supply chain market and more. The team is vastly experienced and they already have a very impressive list of partnerships. If Waltonchain manage to deliver what they have planned then 2018 looks to be a great year for the coin.
For more Waltonchain and other cryptocurrencies head over to our website Cryptos Decoded.