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kleinbl00  ·  1500 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Breitling authentication is running on Ethereum

Far more importantly it entirely eliminates the gray market.

The luxury market is unspeakably fucking bizarre. Almost nothing is written about it, none of the standards are understood by anyone and the truly bizarre distortions of economics are the sorts of things that would never occur to normies. For example, did you know that the airport earns more money from the Duty Free shop than they do FROM FUCKING GATE FEES? Economically, an airport is a luxury goods convenience store that parks airliners instead of cars.

Gray market stuff is huge from a brand standpoint because if you're a luxury brand, you must have a presence in thirteen markets or else you're a regional and international shoppers won't buy your shit. Your profit in those markets varies from 80% to -40% depending on how the tariff and trade schedule works out. You might very well sell perfume for $20 a bottle in Athens but $90 a bottle in Paris. Obviously this opens up an opportunity for anyone willing to drive a truck from Paris to Athens, fill it full of $20 perfume and then open the tailgate just off the Place Vendome. Or, hang up an Internet shingle.

But now? Now anyone with a phone can scan a QR code and go "you bought this perfume in Athens for $20 and you didn't pay resale duty on it. You owe us $80k in fines." Anyone with a phone can scan a QR code and go "this watch was sold in Kuala Lumpur three years ago and hasn't been through an authorized retail channel. It is not new, it cannot be warranted and we will never service it."

"breakage" in the gray market is between 60% and 80% of profits, depending on who's counting and how they count. Blockchain makes that go away. Unfortunately the number of people out in the world who understand both blockchain and the luxury market is... me and maybe a few people I haven't met so I can do things like say "duty free shops are the reason airports are profitable" and I might as well be screaming "freemasons are running the country".