New Balance Cardano blockchain details

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The app is already in the Apple Store and Google Play.

Now, I think I understand why IOHK moved to Wayoming, as it was not really clear for me why they moved there.

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very cool… i didn’t realise the infrastructure would be already up and running

exciting

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I think, it’s based on ATALA (byron based?) and it started years back.
Interesting use case. When you sell your shoes you need to give the ownership to the buyer.

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I’ve listened to Trace Mayer on Wyoming and the crypto legislation he and others have worked on. Great move by Cardano headquartering there. Wyoming will be one of the world leaders in the crypto movement for adoption and practical implementation with respect to laws and regulations. Certainly it will be the most preeminent among US states in what the future will recall as the early days of cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption.

Charles is a great captain of his ship. All the more so in a decentralized company.

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i believe charles mentioned this would use cardano not atala, i was thinking it would be built into a newbalance sidechain in the future that would come off cardano… but considering the shoes seem to be available as well as the app itself then i doubt that is that, i don’t think cardano has those capabilities yet… maybe it’s built directly into cardano with simple metadata in transactions… no idea really

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I have jsut read the Telegram and CH said it’s running on the Cardano mainnet.

I could be wrong but I think some of these registration processes and documentation of ownership are marketing tools. You have the same thing going with some men’s shaving products, like the Rex Ambassador saftey razor being sold for around $250.00. You get some paper certificate with it then need to register it online I think. Along with the packaging, high price point, it’s part of the customer experience i would hazard a guess, to make one feel they have purchased something special.

I’ve never sold a pair of used shoes and I don’t do rummage sells (as in setting up one myself) it’s a waste of time (in relation to time in correlation to Return on Investment).

I don’t like most used things anyways (in terms of clothing). I’d rather buy a new–but inexpensive–clothing from Walmart via made in China or Vietnam than buy some used clothing. Mostly anyways. There might be some exceptions. Even with electronics. Hard lesson learned for me. Many moons ago I bought a TV (without remote) used from a pawn shop. The thing cost me a lot more than had I bought a new one from Walmart. Big mistake on my part.

But blockchain registration could come in handy in cases of theft and disputes over said items via accusations of theft and original ownership.

I think it depends on the personal preference, but I usually do some quality versus price calculations, as sometimes the cheaper are much more expensive then the reasonably priced but good quality ones. Example, I just buy Levis jeans, and in a warehous abt at quarter of the RRP, and I know it will last for 2-4years.
Same, for shoes and other clothes. Tech is a bit more difficult, but I have stuck /w Apple MacBook Pro since 2010 (despite I was a Linux hard core guy), and I am replacing it in every 4-5 years, but it’s much cheaper than it was the past, when I had to buy Laptops in every two years (I have chosen a lot of top level of laptops from the big brands, with no exception).

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So can someone find an address to see what this looks like on the chain?

All good points and I can’t disagree. I will confuse for years I have not bought clothing at Walmart (except for stuff I intend to mess up with paint or dirt, grime, and grease etc.)

My jeans are the likes of brands like Big Star and Axel, which have contrast stitching, and I tend to buy them on sale. I’m reduced to a sale shopper most of the time when it comes to clothing. Which is a problem as opportunity and available funds have to match in time otherwise I’m effed out.

My sports coats and suits are from Men’s Wearhouse, and none of their better lines, so, all my sports coats and suits are cheaply made (i.e., mass produced with glue for about $5 in places like Indonesia and sold at Men’s Wearhouse for about $300 to $600). My dress shoes are sufficient or passable but nothing exceptional. I’ve had them sense Moses lived. Amazing what spit shining can do. But they are not resoleable. They need to be retired to be honest. But my sports coats, suits, and overcoats were mostly bought on sales.

I have a pair of faux leather (plastic mascarading as leather) casual boots I wear with jeans. Got them on sale too at $30 years ago. The soles quickly started tearing apart on the sides and the boots overall are beat up now and need retirement.

You are correct… quality clothing (like a bespoke suit that is full canvas) and quality shoes and boots (e.g. Goodyear welts, thus the soles can be replaced) can last years if not a life time. So, paying a higher price tag is actually less expensive in the long run.

But I think my point was more about used clothing at used clothing stores or rummage sales or God forbid… pawn shops. In my view–with respects to markups after what they purchase off of desperate people–it’s far better just to go to Walmart and by a new electronic without headaches and scuffs.

Firearms are probably one of those things I mostly might not mind buying used if the thing is functioning good. I once had a .357 matte nickle finished revolver I kept loaded with .38 caliber rounds, I bought used off a Marine in his room. A separate occasion years later a friend i had not seen in a long time stopped in for a visit. He pulled out his sawed-off shotgun from under a couch and I pulled out my semi-auto from my waist band illegally concealed. he laughed as he had no I did I had a gun on me. Ended up trading him that pistol for that illegally sawed-off pump shotgun. Can’t remember what type of pistol I had. Might have been a .380 and probably bought used too. Those were the good days…

the motivation for manufacturers to use this tech is to combat inferior counterfeit items, it’s to provide a mechanism to consumers so that they can verify what they bought from some obscure reseller down the road was actually a legit item… this is the real value in the system, to try and combat dodgy sellers and manufacturers from taking a slice of the genuine producers margins and safe guard consumers from being taken advantage of

the 2nd hand market really only comes into play as an added benefit for consumers and only really viable with certain types of products, items that have great resale value or items that are unique, original or relatively rare

mens clothing wouldn’t really be a product that would offer a worthwhile advantage in authentication for the second hand market… but for the brand new market - definitely

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This probably is very largely about marketing, but that’s a good thing, it means big brands are coming to see blockchain in general and Cardano in particular as sexy!

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I agree that this is great marketing for Cardano. Counterfeiting is a very real problem for many companies now however. This is a huge use case that blockchain in general and hopefully Cardano in particular can solve.

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100% you are correct, franco, about the problem of counterfeiting and how companies lose money through that. That’s why the chip with proof of authenticity on the blockchain will help significantly.

But I think my view point of “marketing” was less about the embedded chips or potential of blockchain immutable ledger technology than about the customer registering their purchased product on the blockchain. Maybe I’m wrong… Lord knows I’m no expert on logistics or the links in the chain of products from manufacturing to customer purchase. But it was an impression of mine. I go back to the Rex Ambassador saftey razor (I have a super inexpensive Chinese made knock-off of the famed German made Merkur adjustable Futur. The true German costs about $100 but I think I got my Chinese replica for like $10. You do the math.) which I wouldn’t mind having but I’m not willing (currently) to pay $250 for a saftey razor… I don’t care how nice the packaging or me being able to register it online in my name. It’s probably worthy of an heirloom piece to pass on to a son or nephew one day, but I have no son and I’m poor. So, that takes care of that.

As for mens clothing we see pretty much eye-to-eye. But as I said earlier there might be exceptions for me in the purchasing of used clothing. Maybe. Emphasis on maybe.

We have a high end Goodwill store in Milwaukee’s Third Ward neighborhood. It takes some bread to live in a Third Ward condo. Not NYC, London, Paris, or Hong Kong level of bread but for your average American some serious bread nonetheless. So, the broke, dumb, and unfashionable are not shopping there. The name of the store is Retique (its a Goodwill store regardless). Maybe blockchain registration has a real niche in second hand clothing at boutiques like this. Maybe.

https://historicthirdward.org/experience/shopping/fashion-accessories/retique/

Shop the distinctive, one-of-a-kind, gently used men’s and women’s fashions at this exciting boutique. Accessories abound from shoes to jewelry to wraps, scarves and handbags. Your purchases not only support Goodwill’s mission to provide training, employment and supportive services for people with disabilities or disadvantages who seek greater independence, but are also environmentally friendly and encourage Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06UPFBDpn-4

Goodwill’s Retique in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward is an award-winning thrift store, specializing in high fashion at affordable prices. Retique offers men’s professional wear, including dress shirts, ties, blazers, suits and footwear. There is a huge selection of women’s dresses, designer jeans, scarves, and shoes. And you never know what kind of unique and amazing find awaits you on the shelf, with glassware, dinnerware, art, sculptures and more.

So I am trying to follow the logic here:

  1. You buy shoes
  2. Each box comes with your shoes and a card that authenticates them
  3. The card is physically separate from the shoes

Question: what are the chances that someone could replace your originals with counterfeit along the way and sell the originals on the market?

you use a unique code printed with the tongue of the shoe to validate that the card… in the end you could only sell one counterfeit for each legit version you buy which makes it a worthless enterprise

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As per my understanding, Atala is a private enterprise blockchain solution written in Scala. So New Balance is on Cardano mainnet.

From earlier whiteboard presentation from Charles, I was thinking that sidechains will be the right place to host such kind of use cases.

  1. Will hosting directly on mainnet result in same scalability issues Ethereum facing now?

  2. As ADA is not exchanged, there is no transaction fee for stakepool owners. So the only value it will bring to stakepool owners is the appreciation of Cardano platform with a useful application?

  3. Will this trend follows for future usecases? In that case, main returns for stakepool owners will be the appreciation of overall platform not from ADA transaction fee. Which may cause less / no funds for governance.

  4. Shoes will be in thousands or can reach millions with a limited life time. These historical records in maninet may cause overall platform scalability issues as sidechain or sharding may not be ready. I would love to hear opinion of community members on it.

The New Balance solution is called the “colored coin asset”-approach and it really is on the current Cardano mainnet. If you are interested in the details please see for example this article https://unblock.net/what-are-colored-coins/

I don’t think this will be the trend for future implementation, because once Goguen is available there are other more interesting concepts. But this solution is clever and it works even in Byron era.

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