Blockchain offers ‘better repair and care services’ for luxury products: LVMH CIO

by Arthur · March 23, 2023

The love story between luxury brands and Web3 continues.

At this year’s Paris Blockchain Week, LVMH presented the latest developments around its Aura Blockchain Consortium.

First launched in 2021, the consortium, which includes Prada Group, OTB Group and Cartier, focuses on promoting more sustainable trends in the world of fashion and helping members upgrade product traceability via blockchain technology.

“When you talk about luxury, you talk about long-term products, repair and care,” said Frank Le Moal, vice chairman of the Aura Blockchain Consortium and LVMH’s CIO. Decrypt. “Digital passports supported by a blockchain are a way to provide better repair and care services to customers, and to develop a better one-to-one relationship with them.”

OTB Group, which has well-known brands such as Diesel, Maison Margiela, Marni, Viktor&Rolf and Jil Sander, was one of the first entities to join the consortium.

Source: Aura Blockchain Consortium.

The CEO of the group’s web3 subsidiary BVX, Stephano Rosso, is convinced that blockchain technology is going to “change the way we interact, consume, socialize and communicate,” he said. Decrypt.

“For us, it was essential to jump on board now. It was the right moment to experiment and join others in this space, Rosso said. “The sky is the limit.”

The consortium’s real challenge at one point was to convince other luxury brands, most of them competitors, to join the project.

“The luxury industry is very competitive, people are fighting most of the time,” Le Moal said. “But we managed to develop a collaborative concept involving many brands. We want to offer this as a solution to the luxury world.”

Luxury brands are built publicly

More than a collection of luxury brands, Aura is also a private blockchain built on ConsenSys’ Quorum.

And this week, LVMH also launched a new feature for its network called “Multi-Token minter” (MTM).

Source: Aura Blockchain Consortium.

MTM allows consortium members to build out smart contracts that can be deployed on Aura’s blockchain, but also on any public blockchain, including Ethereum, Solanaor Cosmos.

“We want to let all luxury brands enjoy the possibilities of Web3. We are already more than happy to have 24 brands on board, 21 of them using NFT,” Frank Le Moel. “But with MTM we feel a strong excitement. Because we know some brands prefer to go on a public blockchain.”