Japan-based Tech conglomerate Hitachi and Telecommunication giant KDDI are testing a blockchain-based system. This identifies shoppers via their fingerprints alone. This can also settle retail payments using shoppers’ fingerprints. A group of staff from the two partners is experimenting in this week. A coupon settlement system is deployed in a KDDI store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.
Hitachi Built the technology from the Hyperledger Fabric platform. This Blockchain system is integrated with Hitachi’s biometric verification and KDDI’s existing coupon system. It seeks to settle shoppers’ coupon transactions over a distributed network using their fingerprints as validators.
Hitachi Trials Blockchain Payments Using Fingerprints
Hitachi explained clearly that when shoppers used to sign up the system, they need to register their coupon credits and biometric information. These are then encoded into a string of encrypted data and stored on the blockchain. While initiating a transaction at a retail shop that accepts the coupons and participates in the blockchain as a node. Shoppers verify their identity with a fingerprint reading device that broadcasts the request to the network and the transaction is settled. Hitachi said the top goal is to use a tamper-proof blockchain. This assists in verifying users’ fingerprints. Moreover, this keeps their coupon usage information accurate and updated across stores within the network simultaneously.
“As a result, users can authenticate themselves by holding the finger on the authentication infrastructure, so it is not necessary to present a coupon at the store, and the coupon can be used even without a smartphone,” the company said in the release. This project is the latest pilot test taken by Hitachi to utilize a blockchain platform in retail transactions. Last year, the company also declared it’s developing a blockchain platform to providing chain businesses to manage orders and invoices on an immutable ledger. You may like to read Big Tech Got Money and Talent For Home Robots
