PwC, one of the largest providers of professional services in the world, announced that two of its subsidiaries acquired a percentage of VeChain Global Technology Holding Limited, after establishing a commercial relation with this company that provides blockchain services.
The alliance was signed by the PwC’s subsidiaries from Hong Kong and Singapore. According to the press announcement published by the company, the Hong Kong subsidiary led the negotiations to use the services based on the blockchain technology provided by VeChain, which would require the use of a cryptocurrency called VeChain (VEN) to access and execute operations on the VeChain platform.
Raymund chao, the PwC Asia Pacific and Greater China Chairman, said: “We are glad to establish a deeper relationship with VeChain, which aims to build a trusted and distributed business ecosystem to help address long-standing challenges in supply chain management, food trust and anti-counterfeiting areas. VeChain’s mission aligns with PwC’s purpose of solving important problems and building trust in society.”
VeChain is already participating in similar alliances and its blockchain solution has already been used in the past for similar purposes. Dnv GL, a certifier from Norway and VeChain are working with four wine cellars from Italy to track the entire process of elaborating wine and communicate this information to the consumers through a QR code.
Michele Chiarlo, Ricci Curbastro, Ruffino and Torrevento will use the aforementioned pilot program to register the location of each vineyard, the method of collecting, selecting and pressing the grapes, as well as the information related to the fermentation and bottling of each wine. All this information will registered in a blockchain network created by VeChain. Luca Crisciotti, the CEO of DNV GL, said the following about this solution: “My Story illuminates products and their supply chain for the benefit of consumers, who will have instant and in-depth access to key product characteristics such as quality, authenticity, origin, ingredients, water and energy consumption and more, all verified by DNV GL along the entire transformation process.”
On the other hand, Renato Grottola, the Digital Transformation director ad DNV GL said: “My Story is our first solution based on our brand new Digital Assurance concept which already goes far beyond tracking a product from the point of origin up to the consumer. The VeChainThor powered application will be available on DNV GL’s data management platform Veracity. This is only the first step of a longer journey in which we will leverage on the combined and coherent use of Blockchain, IoT, Data Curation and Artificial Intelligence to help customers building trust on their products, improving their performances and increasing efficiency in processes.”
PwC does not stay behind when it comes to innovations involving the blockchain technology and the cryptocurrencies. In March this year, the company announced it was developing a new tool based on the blockchain technology that would help companies track the cryptocurrencies launched through initial coin offerings (ICOs) in order to avoid their use for illegal activities.
The Hong Kong subsidiary of PwC is especially inclined to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Last year, the subsidiary received its first payment in bitcoins, which was a sign that showed the advance of the company when it comes to the perception and implementation of payments with cryptocurrencies. At the time, Raymund chao explained it was indicative that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies converted into widely accepted forms of solution.
After the alliance between PwC and VeChain was announced, the price of the VEN token was 5.45 dollars per coin, according to CoinMarketCap, which presents a rise of 6%. The current price of the token is just below five dollars (4.94) and the total market capitalization is slightly below 2.6 billion dollars. There are more than 525 million VEN tokens in circulation
