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Veri-Thread

Transparent, sustainable fashion backed up by blockchain. Trace every step from material to finished product, safety contracts, earn ICP tokens for supporting ethical and eco-friendly manufacturing.

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Inspiration

The fashion industry is often overlooked when we think about the main suspects to pollution. The industry has been burdened by hidden supply chains, unethical labor practices, and significant environmental damage in various sectors. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reports that the fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of water and accounts for approximately 10% of global carbon emissions—exceeding the combined emissions of all international flights and maritime shipping. As consumers, we often only see the final product, overlooking or not even realizing the harmful impacts caused throughout the fashion production process. In our quest for transparency, we investigated the potential of blockchain and identified safety contracts as a crucial solution for ensuring accountability at every stage of the manufacturing process so user's are encouraged to become more selective with the products they purchase.

What it does

There are two primary participants in the use of safety contracts. First, the admin (such as distributors, manufacturers, or suppliers) signs off on successfully transferring the physical product and its digital twin to the next part of the distribution chain. Secondly, the end users, scanning the final QR code that contains a unique hash tied to the garment and blockchain, allowing them to access and collect a digitized version of the item. This ensures both transparency in the supply chain and a digital representation of the product for users to track.

This decentralized auditing system adds another layer of accountability, as multiple parties independently validate the successful transfer of both the physical product and its digital twin. The distributed nature of this system reduces the risk of corruption or errors that may occur in a centralized system, ensuring that every step in the supply chain is transparent, verified, and traceable.

The practice of falsely portraying products or companies as environmentally friendly—is so widespread in the fashion industry, full transparency is critical to combat this issue. Ultimately, this level of transparency allows consumers to trust the product and make informed decisions, knowing that the garment’s sustainability credentials are genuinely aligned with the practices behind it, eliminating the deceptive practices of greenwashing.

How we built it

Frontend - TypeScript and Figma Backend - Motoko

Challenges we ran into

The first big hurdle we ran into was setting up the frontend of our website. We also ran into issues figuring out how ICP tokens work and how to deploy our project on the blockchain using the main net.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re extremely proud of being able to implement a difficult concept, none of us had any blockchain experience. We entered the hackathon with knowledge of front-end development and back-end development. We finished with an end-to-end application addressing an important real-world problem to increase sustainability by integrating blockchains.

What we learned

For this hackathon, we decided to push ourselves and develop a project utilizing blockchain. As this was a new technical area for all of us, these past 36 hours has created an environment for non-stop learning. For one, we learned about what ICP (Internet Computer Protocol) is and the benefits to using its backend software. Furthermore, smart contracts (or canisters) are computational units that developers deploy to the Internet Computer which interact with one another automatically. We also learned about Layer 2 scaling solutions which is the concept of building blockchains on top of each other. After researching and learning about all the ways we can incorporate blockchain into an app, we came to the concept of tracking supply chains using blockchains where all the participants in the supply chain have access to a shared, decentralized ledger and each transaction or change in product status is recorded as a block in this ledger. After we understood the logic in the backend, we evaluated implementation in the frontend and came to the idea of QR Scanning. This was another learning curve for us because none of us have worked extensively with embedding information within a QR code, especially to retrieve the serial code and send a request to the blockchain. The development of this process came with a lot of research as we learning about dfx libraries, the usage of Node.js and development using Motoko. Another lesson for us was the practice, use and importance of user interface design and translating Figma to Typescript. Finally, we implemented API calls to integrate the backend with the front end. Overall, the team learned a lot about blockchain, front-end design and development and API integration through the Hack the Valley 2024 hackathon.

What's next for VeriThread

Aside for continuing to develop a dedicated mobile app, we would like to implement an incentive where people receive a partial ICP fund, encouraging them to continue shopping sustainably while also adding a gamified element to the experience. We would also like to expand into new markets and integrate VeriThread’s blockchain technology with more retail partners, making it easier for people to shop ethically.

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