Interview with The VeChain Blockchain Team

VeChain is a smart contract platform mainly focused on commercial adoption. The platform allows for the creation of decentralised applications to solve problems such as anti-counterfeiting, cold-chain logistics and maintaining tamper-proof records.

What is VeChain?

VeChain is a next-generation smart contract platform devoted to providing blockchain solutions to different enterprises. In terms of adoption, VeChain is at the top of all the blockchain developments in the field, having been adopted by prominent clients such as BMW, Givenchy, and Walmart.

The innovation brought about by blockchain technology enables us to create trustless machines. With its decentralized structure and immutability, it can establish a unique trust feature that may not be available in centralized systems.

Blockchain creates a trust-free world because it does not rely on flawed humans in operating the whole system. If we are aiming for the better world, blockchain has to be there.

How has progress been over the last year?

When COVID-19 shook the world, many enterprises had to digitize their business, or put them up online, in order to continue to remain afloat. That means relying on the digital version of the world. If that is to be the case, blockchain is one of the first fundamental infrastructure technologies you will need.

Furthermore, a blockchain allows a business operation that is completely secure and transparent from end-to-end. With it, every data relevant to each transaction can be safely stored and accessed by anyone since it is a distributed database.

What are the challenges you are working on now?

To maintain VeChain’s growth, we are continuously increasing the capacity and capability of their platform. This is what we are devoted to doing, and have been doing for the past few years.

Before, the procedure required for an enterprise to establish an e-commerce platform was extremely difficult. That was the case if we look back 25 or 30 years ago. But with blockchain technology, we don’t have to work everything out from scratch any more.

Blockchain has enabled us to easily build an e-commerce platform with all the new tools that can help enterprises innovate their Proof of Concept (PoC), production, and skill amplification. Other parts of the supply chain could also heavily benefit from blockchain technology.

How do you see the future adoption of VeChain?

A lot of people are now starting to use the blockchain as an essential part of transitioning to e-commerce. Just a year and a half ago, VeChain underwent numerous upgrades.

Now we have new fundamental modules that seek to provide specific solutions to enterprises. The first module provides a standard template for different kinds of businesses based on the industries that have used VeChain successfully.

For example, you can imagine establishing a supermarket chain. With VeChain, the standard template would be to refer to Walmart China. you can easily refer to China’s Walmart case. Or in the case of a pharmaceutical company looking into conducting clinical trials for new drugs, they can refer to Bayer China.

This saves a lot of time for the user because they can start production in just a few weeks after setting it up.
Looking back, it has been too time-consuming to establish a business on a blockchain platform. A project that we observe in the United States was developing a food safety platform on the blockchain. It took them 14 months, however, to set up on-chain for just a 12-month period Proof of concept.

VeChain helped make the process a whole lot easier. Working with Walmart China, it only took them three months to finish everything.

If you are starting to use a template, it would be easier. You would just need a couple of days or a week maximum to create something. No need to wait nine months or more just to create a Proof of concept.

A second module provides templates to different companies based on which practice that might fit their model. They can build on these templates, and transfer their infrastructure model to the blockchain within just a few weeks.
The third module that they use allows the user to gather and understand data on the blockchain. It provides the user with the tools to reveal the value of the data that they have stored. In the case of Walmart China, for example, consumers can still easily trace the movement of their purchases with the data accessible in its public blockchain.
While blockchain is mainly a technological innovation, the entire blockchain space needs more business experts to complement its technological value with business

Six months after we first launched the VeChain mainnet in 2018, the total number of transactions was almost half a million. But in 2019, this number shot up to 36 million. And in 2020, we were already processing a hundred thousand transactions per day. The growth rate is increasing consistently, as we continue on the path to mass adoption.