Provenance Wins 1 Million Euro Prize from the European Commission for ‘Blockchains for Social Good’
PROVENANCE
With the win of the prestigious EU Horizon 2020 award, we’re supercharged to continue our work enabling brands to make their supply chain and impact transparent.
From 178 applications, Provenance’s new innovation – Proof Points – was one of 6 projects selected for the Horizon 2020 prize, run under the EU research and innovation programme. Proof Points respond to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by enabling consumer goods brands to be publically transparent on their social and environmental impact in a format designed for the Internet age.
“I warmly congratulate all the winners. The proposed solutions show how blockchain can create positive social change by supporting fair trade, increasing transparency in production processes and e-commerce and contributing to financial inclusion by exploring decentralised economic structures. I hope that this award can help upscale these outstanding ideas and inspire many other innovators.”
— Maria Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation Research, Culture, Education and Youth
With brands increasingly sharing information on the impact behind their products — from fair pay to diversity in the workforce to carbon footprints — it’s hard for citizens to know what’s trustworthy, or even understand what all the badges and numbers mean.
Going beyond product traceability, we’re creating proof that’s meaningful to shoppers on the social and environmental impact of products. These Proof Points appear to shoppers as interactive icons representing claims about a business or product. Each Proof Point is part of the Provenance Transparency Framework, which is designed for shoppers to easily compare and trust what is said at the point of sale.
Proof Points are one feature in Provenance’s software platform for transparent brands. The platform and services provide all the tools for digital supply chain and impact transparency — essential for any brand team looking to respond to the needs of today’s conscious shopper.
“How a brand impacts the environment and society will be core to why we trust them in the future. Green, fair and transparent must become the fastest growing trend, otherwise, our planet is in trouble. For us, the next frontier is impact transparency with integrity. We’ve seen companies show us their factories and some impact information, which is great, but with many brands opening information to their customers, we need consistency and proof that what they say has impact.
We created Proof Points during the Blockchain for Social Good prize period, to enable commitments, impact progress and claims to be digitally authenticated in a straightforward way we can all understand and trust. This will enable the brands of the future to win.”
— Jessi Baker, founder & CEO of Provenance
Development of the tools available in the blockchain space has grown hugely, however, Jessi and the team at Provenance believe that some of the largest challenges faced in 2014 are still present today. The lack of privacy and scalability on public chains is prohibitive to end-to-end product tracking. As such, we’ll use this prize to speed up the progress in developing open, decentralised and scalable solutions for honest supply chain information – establishing a layer of trust and driving impact-led commerce.
The vision for Provenance is to enable every brand to be transparent with integrity, in order to empower the market of buyers and shoppers to reward socially and environmentally responsible businesses. Our aim is to help citizens make purchasing decisions based on true stories and impact, rather than just price and convenience.
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Provenance Project is a part of the investment portfolio of Merian Ventures, a venture firm founded by Alexsis de Raadt St. James that invests in women-founded and co-founded tech innovation in the US and UK.