Shaping the industry’s future with blockchain

Powerful data is a modern-day commodity. Experts agree that investing in data technology is a must to stay ahead in an ever more complex data-based economy.

Blockchain offers the promise of secure data accessibility and full transparency. However, trust in the network, the security of the data stored, and the very high price of implementation are potentially inhibiting factors for companies considering the adoption of blockchain.

How it works

Blockchain is nothing less than a public database. All data is permanently inscribed, which makes changing records or data impossible. This boosts data transparency at all levels. In practice, records may contain items such as descriptions of activities, details of processes, and information about the parties involved.

Insiders believe that this technology can transform whole supply chains: making them inclusive and transparent. The World Economic Forum forecasts that 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP) will be stored on blockchain by 2025, including product identifiers, medical records, land registries, academic degrees and insurance contracts.

Applications for the pet industry

Especially for the pet supply chain, blockchain appears to be gaining ground. For instance, China-based VeChain offers blockchain traceability technology for pet food manufacturers with the aim to ‘quickly bring health concerns about pet food safety under control’.

The platform uses the so-called ‘immutable provenance technology’ (scanning a QR code) to prove, for instance, pet food packaging origin, validation of the product’s high-quality ingredients, and tracking of the product’s entire value chain in a transparent way.

“Blockchain can not only increase the efficiency of a company’s internal supply chain, but also potentially prevent damages to a company’s reputation during recalls. Increased traceability data enable companies and authorities to quickly track and trace problematic batches of products, significantly increasing consumer trust and safety,” according to a company spokesman.

Animal shelters

On a less commercial note, animal shelters, for example, also stand to benefit from blockchain. Shelters are still not required to report the number of pets that they take in, adopt out or euthanize, with documents still largely stored as physical copies.

Blockchain technology has the capability to transform the reel. Records of activity can be taken at every point in the system, from when the pups are born, to when they’re vaccinated, transported and sold – all the while ensuring that everything is protected from fraud.

Such transparency will also get stolen and found pets back to their owners. The American Kennel Club (AKC) estimates that 2 million dogs are stolen each year in the US. Even if someone can be lucky enough to find the animal again, proof of ownership is essential.

New players in the market

Over the past years, several companies have entered the pet market, offering blockchain solutions for data-related challenges.

In 2018, Pawtocol launched the world’s first pet fund based on blockchain technology that supports animal shelters. The company has been working on building a platform that allows requesting, purchasing and organizing recorded pet data. The entire platform is built on Ethereum, one of the main blockchain systems in the world and a community-run technology powering the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of decentralized applications.

The company expects a future where every pet ‘is identifiable on a blockchain’. Owners will be able to access information from data points available across pet products and services.

In a similar vein, Pawtocol also recently launched its blockchain-powered social platform Kingdom. By sharing their data, pet owners can create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to represent their pets digitally and all information related to them.

Data collection as business case

The company rewards pet owners for sharing information about their furry friends: from vet visits to purchases in pet stores. Similarly, users can share data about their pet, and in return they are rewarded with a cryptocurrency called Universal Pet Income.

According to the company, vendors, researchers and other parties are interested in paying for the high-integrity data Pawtocol collects.

AnimalGO offers a similar service in South Korea, where users can upload pictures of their pets and submit data through an artificial intelligence-based mobile app. Since its launch in 2020, more than 100,000 pet parents have downloaded the application. The data stored is used to analyze consumer behavior and health patterns. In exchange, pet parents receive cryptocurrencies to purchase goods inside the platform.

The company also offers offline ecosystems, like AnimalGo Park and AnimalGo Beauty, providing services such as a daycare hotel or swimming pool that can be paid for using cryptocurrency.

An investment holding company bought 43% of the company in 2022, which is now worth 10 billion (€7 million / $7.6M).

Current expectations for a future with blockchain

Transparency comes at a cost. It is estimated that a simple blockchain application can cost $15,000- $40,000 (€13,700-€36,600), reaching $130,000 (€119,000) if it requires more complexity. For a small company, costs can be even higher, as implementing this technology requires a team of full-time developers.

A survey by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) analyzed more than 80,000 blockchain projects worldwide in 2018, but only 8% managed to remain active after a period of 15 months. “These projects came out very quickly, but died quickly as well,” concludes He Baohong from the CAICT.

For the time being, despite its potential, implementing blockchain technology in the pet industry can be expensive, with some still to be faced challenges in the long run.