Blockchain-based e-commerce verification platform simplyBrand partners with COBINHOOD to stop online counterfeiting 

Counterfeiting is a global menace and according to research, counterfeit-induced losses amounted to $323 billion in 2017. The rise of e-commerce has compounded the already huge problem. Customers are looking towards e-commerce platforms to offer authentic products, but many platforms either turn a blind eye towards merchants selling fakes or cite their inability to authenticate thousands of merchants and millions of products of their veracity.

The onus is thus on the brands to stop counterfeiting to protect their reputation, along with their intellectual property. This is the problem simplyBrand, a blockchain powered e-commerce verification platform, is on a mission to solve. The startup is leveraging the power of blockchain, with artificial intelligence (AI), and crowdsourcing to put an end online counterfeiting once and for all.

simplyBrand announced today it has entered into a strategic partnership with COBINHOOD, a leading cryptocurrency service platform and zero-fee exchange, to launch its ICO. This ICO is being used by simplyBrand as a means of scaling up its e-commerce verification services globally and the SBA tokens will be used to reward crowdsourcing participants who provide human intelligence to the platform’s anti-counterfeiting activities.

simplyBrand was co-founded by Kaufman Chang and Ronnie Ng. Both Kaufman and Ronnie are alumni of University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Kaufman is a startup entrepreneur with ventures in cloud computing software and big data security software. Ronnie is an entrepreneur who has also previously handled marketing for reputed organizations. He is also a business development expert. Its inclusive ecosystem combines artificial intelligence, blockchain and crowdsourcing to eliminate counterfeit products in digital commerce. simplyBrand enables people and AI to collaborate utilizing the unique features of blockchain technology to strengthen security in online purchases.

simplyBrand is already an established company with a solid business model and many reputed customers that have been using their services to tackle counterfeiting of their brands. Now, simplyBrand is moving into a new era with its blockchain solutions. It will now use AI and blockchain to embed enhanced identification and verification in every transaction. All information pertaining to the parties that infringe upon the IP rights of brands will be “blacklisted” and their information will be published on the blockchain for public reference. This will make help create barriers for retailers of counterfeit products.

The simplyBrand platform

“Along with AI and blockchain, we believe that human intelligence will play a vital role in any anti-counterfeiting activities, not just ours. To encourage human participation and to incentivize individual efforts, we have created a lucrative reward structure in the form of our native SBA tokens,” said Kaufman Chang, founder and CEO of simplyBrand. He further explained that with a digital ecosystem of the retail economy powered by e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Amazon, it is imperative that a transparent system be created that provides a better online shopping experience for customers. “With the help of COBINHOOD’s expertise and its robust community, we believe that we can bring about a positive transformation to this industry.”

“I think what simplyBrand is doing is of great value to brands around the world who are fighting their own battles against counterfeiting. They have been doing this successfully since the past many years now and have been helping many brands. They are not just an idea, but a company with successful operations and paying clients,” said COBINHOOD co-founder, Popo Chen. He said that the simplyBrand platform can bring all brands together in their bid to tackle this global issue and that they can achieve a lot of success in their bid to strengthen the global digital economy. “We are happy to have partnered with simplyBrand and will utilize all our experience and expertise to ensure the success of their token sale.” The SBA tokens will be listed on the COBINHOOD after the end of the ICO to enhance liquidity.