Smart-Link connecting owners, assets, and brands.

WHITE PAPER
VERSION 0.9100

Table of Contents

Arianee White Paper
Introduction

5

Arianee’s protocol

25

MISSION STATEMENT

5

Owners26

PROBLEM STATEMENT

6

Brands27

Third-party community

29

Business Case studies

29

The Vault

Arianee luxury

29

Smart-Asset

Expanding to other valuable objects

33

Smart-Link

Other markets

34

Technical Implementation

35

Why Arianee chose to use a blockchain

35

Which blockchain ?

36

Technical Architecture

41

Information hierarchy and data encryption

42

Workflows

44

Stakeholder incentives and Governance46

Stakeholder incentives

46

Governance46

Arianee Team48

Arianee roadmap

51

Arianee structure

52

Origin of the name52

Independence

52

OwnersBrandsARIANEE PLATFORM

7

Brand Data Hub
Community/business partner toolkit
BLOCKCHAIN

8Proof of Authority protocol
Token model

Problems with current product records

9Authenticity and the fight against counterfeiting

9

Proving ownership while preserving the owner’s privacy

12

Authorized third parties

13

Product journey data

14

Arianee’s value proposition16

For owners

16

For brands

17

For third parties

19

Arianee User Journeys

20

Owners20

Brand journey

232Arianee’s mission is to build the first perpetual,
anonymous and trusted record all the world’s asset,
enabling a revolutionary link between owners and brands.
Arianee aspires to become the world’s leading universal
protocol for the creation and transfer of digital certificatesof ownership and authenticity for objects.
All subsequent-generation owners will manage
the journey of their valuable assets through time while
maintaining contact with their creators: the Smart-Link.

Tomorrow, the ownership of ourassets will be safely stored in a
blockchain, making robbery a wordof the past, and bringing augmented
features to your physical goods.

3

01

Introduction

Mission statementArianee offers the opportunity to add a new layer of trust in the certification of goods to existing layers (paper
certificates, RFIDs, holograms, etc.) – without asking a brand to set its current processes aside – by creating a certificate
and allowing other parties to grant it to the original owner of a product.

Arianee adds a unique paradigm to this eternal battle against counterfeiters and pirates: from now on, the ability to verify a product’s
authenticity and origin will be distributed widely to a range of stakeholders. There is no doubt that having a digital asset linked tothe physical product will significantly reinforce an owner’s or potential purchaser’s trust in the authenticity of the product. Along withthe respective physical asset and its physical certificate, there will be a digital asset that adds an incontrovertible layer of insurance.
Because the paradigm uses blockchain technology, the asset is published in a unique chain and is directly linked to a single
physical serial number. Rather than resting solely with brands, the burden of vouching for a product’s authenticity is now shared byeverybody and accessible to anyone.

Current physical playground

ITEMS / ASSETSSERIALNUMBER

ANTI-COUNTERFEIT TECHNOLOGIESSECURITYLABELS

PACKAGING
DESIGN

Arianee’s blockchain

Smart-Asset
Digital unfalsiﬁable certiﬁcate representing a uniqueasset, connecting items, owners & brands. Unleashing
new Ownership and Business opportunities.
Smart-Link

OwnersBrandsRetailersExperts

HOLOGRAM

RFID

Enable Smart Features- Warranty, user manual,
proof of ownership,
proof of sale, history (...)- Lost, found, lend (...)- Full privacy- Direct communication,
Brand / Owner- 3rd-party DApps (...)- Zero knowledge proof
capabilities

3rd Parties
Developers

Arianee Open Source Protocol

4NFC

3rd Parties
Customs,
insurance (...)

01

Introduction

Problem statement

OwnersBrandsStoring a product’s relevant documentation is often doneusing physical paper, which can be misplaced or destroyedin an accident.

Brands maintain customer relationship management (CRM)
technologies to record interactions between individuals andthe brand’s employees or other communication channels.
Due to the fragmented nature of the distribution network,
customer records are often unreliable and even, in somecases, non-existent.

Some brands offer product registration that will prove
ownership. However, the owner has no control over how
this information is used and access is restricted by a brand’s
terms of use. Moreover, each brand provides its own systemand owners need to register their ownership in multiple
incompatible proprietary databases with different userinterfaces.

The current owner of a product is often unreachable by
the brand as products can change hands after purchase. Thiscan lead to mistargeted communications if a product was,for example, purchased as a gift or resold on the secondhand market.

Owners need a simple solution allowing them to securely
store their products’ proof of ownership, authenticity andother documentation, like warranties, in one place. They
also have to retain complete control over how, when, and bywhom this information can be accessed.

Brands need a solution that would allow them to have an
open communication channel with a product’s current
owner at all times. Although it may sound obvious, the ability
to maintain direct contact with the owners of its products without an intermediary - is a great leap forward for brands.
Ultimately, maintaining a permanent link with a product’s ownerwill allow a brand to better address grey market activities andto protect distribution networks from fraudulent actors.

5

01

Introduction

Arianee platform

The Vault

Smart-Asset

The Vault is an easy-to-use online repository where owners
can register all their products free of charge. Informationentered by owners isstored on the Arianee blockchain, whichassures that it cannot be changed by a third party.

Products registered on the Arianee blockchain are displayed
as “Smart-Assets”. The Smart-Asset lists all the products’
proof of ownership, authenticity and other documentation, likewarranties. Each Smart-Asset is unique, immutable andtransferable between Vaults.

While the Arianee blockchain is accessible to anyone,
all information in a user’s Vault is encrypted using timetested encryption methods to protect the owners’ privacy.
Furthermore, the integrity of the information stored on theblockchain is certified by zero-knowledge proof technology(once it’s ready).

Brand Data Hub
The data hub is the center of brands’ interactions with the
Arianee platform. It provides product life analytics inthree core modules:

Smart-Link• The Product Registry, where brands manage
authenticated objects.

The Smart-Link is a process that gives owners full control of
how they give access to their Vaults. They can choose whichdata they share,with whom and under which conditions.
Numerous types of operations are allowed by the Smart-Link,
from simple read access t o delegation of authority.

• The Communication Center, where brands reachout to product owners.
• The Distribution Network Management System,
where brands interact with their distribution networks.

Authenticity is at the core of Arianee’s value proposition
and therefore, smart authenticity is the primary signaturein the Arianee protocol. Verified brands can authenticate
products stored in a Vault at the owner’s request.
As long as the authenticity is valid, the brand maintains a
communication channel open with the product ownerregardless of future changes in ownership.

Community – business
partner toolkit
While the Arianee platform can be used on its own, it iseven more powerful when used in coordination with legacy
IT systems (ERP, CRM, etc.) or other distributed ledger
platforms. The ecosystem toolkit will facilitate the creationand distribution of decentralized solutions built by developers(SAP, Accenture, IBM, etc.) on the Arianee protocol.

6

01

Introduction

Blockchain

Proof of Authority
protocolToken model

Anybody can run a public node that allows them toverify all data recorded on the Arianee blockchain. While
everybody can verify the blockchain, Arianee uses a Proofof Authority protocol to record new information. Authority
nodes are the only nodes allowed to seal blocks on the
Arianee blockchain. Arianee will be launched with a large
number of pre-approved authority nodes. New authority
nodes have to be voted in by already-approved authority
nodes. This system assures that a malicious miner cannot
inflict damage on the network. This allows the Arianee
network to run faster than a classic proof of work protocol
as node computing power is only used for processing
transactions.

The ARIA token is the basis of the Arianee protocol. It is
an ERC20 token traded freely on exchanges. The token isused to pay for paid features on the Arianee protocol.
Recent examples with Bitcoin and Ethereum show that token
price volatility can lead to wild fluctuations in transaction
costs on blockchain platforms. This is an obstacle for user
adoption as it becomes difficult to predict the cost of afuture transaction with a high degree of certainty, which is
not conceivable for companies.
In addition to our token, ‘‘Gas’’ will be used to secure theblockchain and prevent spam and malicious behavior.
This Gas will be provided under circumstances to be
determined.

Arianee will deploy its own Proof-of-Authority Ethereumbased permissioned blockchain.

.arianee.org + token holders

Arianee’s ecosystem7

02Problems with current
product records

Authenticity and the fightagainst counterfeiting
and software, bringing the total value of counterfeit goods
to about a trillion dollars.

Society has struggled with counterfeiting for millenia. It’s
sometimes tempting to take the rather cynical view thatthe marketing of fake products is natural human behavior.
In many cases, there are significant rewards to be reaped
from counterfeiting or pirating the goods produced byquality brands.

Millions of jobs worldwide 4 have been eliminated due
to counterfeit black markets and the potential profitabilityof illicit trade increasingly attracts organized crime, with costs
from related criminal activity estimated at some 60 billion
dollars. Moreover, local workers are exploited by becoming
unwitting participants in counterfeiting and piracy schemes.

However, taking credit for the R&D successes of others
or copying innovations and breakthroughs that have beendeveloped by others has a large negative impact on healthand safety, social structure, innovation, and economic
activity.

Finally, for governments, counterfeiting means lost tax
revenue, higher unemployment and expenses associatedwith compliance with anti-counterfeiting legislation, andthe need to react to public safety threats and labor market
distortions.

Unfortunately, studies from the OCDE reported a substantial
increase in counterfeiting trends1. Between 2008 and 2013,
counterfeiting increased from 1.9% of the total volume ofinternational trade to 2.5%, a figure that represents morethan 460 billion dollars worth of transactions3. Research
conducted by Frontier Economics extended those figureswith the addition of domestic production and consumptionof counterfeit goods and the digital piracy of films, music

The negative impacts of counterfeiting and piracy are projected todrain $4.2 trillion from the global
economy and put 5.4 million legitimate jobs at risk by 2022.1
Jeff Hardy | International Chamber of Commerce­­­­­­­­ 1 “Estimating the Global Economic and Social Impacts of Counterfeiting and Piracy - World Trademark Review,” May 18, 2017.
–
http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/Intelligence/Anti-counterfeiting/2017/Introduction/Estimating-the-global-economic-and-socialimpacts-of-counterfeiting-and-piracy.
– 2 Frontier Economics. “ICC-BASCAP-Frontier-Report-2016-,” 2016.
https://cdn.iccwbo.org/content/uploads/sites/3/2017/02/ICC-BASCAP-Frontier-report-2016.pdf.
­­­­ 3 “Global Trade in Fake Goods Worth Nearly Half a Trillion Dollars a Year - OECD & EUIPO - OECD.” April,18,2016. http://www.oecd.org/–
industry/glo al-trade-in-fake-goods-worth-nearly-half-a-trillion-dollars-a-year. htm.
­­­­ 4 “Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods | OECD READ Edition.” OECD iLibrary. 2016 edition.
–
http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/governance/trade-in-counterfeit-and-pirated-goods_9789264252653-en.

8

02Problems with current
product records
ESTIMATE

2013

2022 (forecast)

Total international trade in counterfeit andpirated goods$ 461 billion

Total domestic production and consumptionof counterfeit pirated goods$ 249 - $ 456 billion$ 524 - $ 959 billion

Digital piracy in movies, music and software$ 213 billion$ 384 - $ 856 billion- Digital piracy in film

$ 160 billion$ 289 - $ 644 billion- Digital piracy in music$ 29 billion$ 53 - 117 billion- Digital piracy in software$ 24 billion$ 42 - 95 billion

Total value of counterfeit and pirated goods$ 923 billion 1.13 trillion$ 1.90 - $ 2.81
trillion- Displacement of legitimate
economic activity$ 470 - $ 597 billion$ 980 - $ 1244 billion- Estimated reduction in FDI$ 111 billion$ 231 billion- Estimated fiscal losses$ 96 - $ 130 billion$ 199 - $ 270 billion- Estimated costs of crime$ 60 billion$ 125 billion

Total Wider economic and social costs$ 737 - $ 898 billion$ 1.54 - $ 1.87
trillion

Estimated employement losses

2 - 2.6 million$ 4.2 - 5.4 million

Foregone economic growth in OECD 2017

$ 3 billion to $ 54 billion$ 991 billion

wider economic and social costs

Source | Frontier estimates based on OECD 2013 data on counterfeiting in international
trade, and UN trade and GDP data to derive estimates for domestic production andconsumption. Data for Piracy based on latest industry sources (2015).

9

02Problems with current
product records

a i The failure of physicalb i The limits of expert

Physical certificates have been introduced as a way toauthenticate objects without the need for a detailed expert
assessment. However, physical certificates present several
areas of vulnerability.

The only way to confirm the authenticity of a product when
it is impossible to trace its origin is to request an expert
assessment. The expert will compare the details, materials,
and craftsmanship of the object to assess its authenticity.
This process is costly and is only as reliable as the brand’s
network of specialists. The sad reality is that the majority ofbrands only use third-party resellers (e.g. Macy’s, Galerie
Lafayette, etc.), which tend not to have staff with brandspecific training. And even a visit to a brand’s own boutiqueor retailer reveals that most of the team members in theseshops don’t have the skills to confirm - beyond all doubt the authenticity of a certificate.

assessment

certificates

Methods of combating counterfeiting with proof of authenticity
have a long history. One of the oldest examples might be theseal of the sovereign, which would vouch for the authenticity
of a message. Later on, paper money, bearer bonds acting as
corporate shares, and other negotiable financial instruments
bore watermarks intended to prevent counterfeiting.
As the years passed, these methods were replaced bymodern equivalents. Technologies like RFID, holograms, andNFC are, in effect, contemporary tools intended to add a layerof protection that makes a product more difficult to copy.

Furthermore, the rise of the so-called “super-fakes”, copies
with high attention to detail and superior craftsmanship,demonstrates the limits of expert assessments. The copies
are increasingly difficult to distinguish from the originals5.

Physical certificates of any sort are copyable - somemore easily than others - and are therefore susceptible
to counterfeiting. Accordingly, a physical certificate is, just likethe product itself, difficult to authenticate beyond all doubt.
A close look at the luxury market, where counterfeiting isa major issue, makes it clear that the brands provide little orno information that enables a consumer to understand how
to distinguish a genuine product from a copy. Each brandhas its own way to create certificates, which it doesn’t
communicate publicly.
Because it can be falsified, a physical certificate of authenticity
is often linked to a serial number. This serial number is useful
only if it can be referenced to a database. Access to these
databases is usually restricted and therefore of little use forthe second-hand market.

­­­­­­­­ 5 Biggs, John. “The Attack of the SuperFakes.” TechCrunch (blog).
–
December 3rd, 2017.
http://social.techcrunch.com/2017/12/03/the-attack-of-the-superfakes/.
­­­­­­­­

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02

Problems with current
product records

Proving ownership while
preserving the owner’s
privacy

Current product registration solutions also create additional
incentives for criminals. These centralized non-anonymized
databases at the brand level are “honeypots” for hackers
looking to identify high-potential targets for thefts/burglaries,
thus increasing the likelihood of hacking.

Proving ownership is necessary for all customers as it allows
them to access such services as insurance or manufacturer
guarantees. It also protects them from theft.

Furthermore, customers are not in control of their data. These
databases are usually the sole property of the brands and do
not allow customers to share access easily with a third party.

The need for a proof of ownership should always be balanced
against the need for the owner’s privacy, as any record ofownership could potentially identify them as targets for criminals.

Finally, these solutions offer poor data portability. The
responsibility for the first registration of a new product is the
responsibility of the brand or retailer for the original owner.
This registration is often impossible to transfer to subsequent
owners and therefore compromises the second-hand market.

a i Proof of purchase
Claims of ownership are usually confirmed with a proof ofpurchase such as an invoice or a receipt. These titles ofownership are easily lost, misplaced, or destroyed because
they are either not digitized (paper receipt) or, if they are
digitized, not safely secured (no backup).
Moreover, these proofs of purchase can easily be altered or
falsified. While an original seller can check his/her records,
a third party (second buyer, insurance company, etc.) will
suffer a high administrative burden and operational costs inorder to verify any information provided by a claimant with theseller, particularly as retailers are generally not in a position toprovide evidence of a purchase from a past customer. CRMs
collect data between product and buyers in a centralized
database. Without an update that includes the new owner’s
name, CRM databases are inefficient.
It should also be noted that the possession of a valid proof ofpurchase and a product is a poor proof of actual ownershipas the receipt/invoice may not make any reference to thepurchaser’s identity.

b i Product registration
Another solution in current use is product registration, whichsome brands have already implemented. This solution
requires products owners to enter a product’s serial number,their personal identity, and other relevant information ina centralized database. While this approach offers theadvantage of linking proof of purchase and identity, it
generates additional problems.
This approach puts customer privacy at risk. In order to register
product ownership, owners need to register their personal
information in the database. This can be particularly risky as
burglars and thieves are interested in acquiring information
about where valuables are stored.

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02

Problems with current
product records
Authorized third parties
In order to assure the quality of the network of retailers andpartners distributing or offering services around a product,
brands need to be able to audit these actors and grant them“authorized” status. This status is an acknowledgement thatthey meet the thresholds of quality, reliability and excellence
to which the brands aspire.

Serious consequences are caused by non-authorized dealers:
they damage brands’ profit margins and undermine thecustomer experience. Unlike a brand or an authorized retailer,these unsanctioned resellers have neither the overhead
nor the operational costs – for example, advertising, quality
control, and customer service – that are generally associatedwith running a legitimate business. They essentially benefit
from the reputation and the goodwill that brands and theirauthorized representatives have built so conscientiously.

While many brands have a network of authorized resellers
and service companies, this status of authorization can be
fraudulently claimed by companies that are neither audited
nor authorized and which can deceive unsuspecting owners.
There is a clear need to provide a cost-effective, universally
accessible way - which is absolutely inviolable - for brands
to deliver their verified seals of approval to legitimately
authorized third-party companies.

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02

Problems with current
product records

When brands present their products, they define theparameters they use, including colors, counter displays, up-todate communication materials and so on. These are all among
the most important touch points at the defining moment of thecustomer journey: the in-store experience. From a customer’s
perspective, warranty activation generally has to be done
through an official retailer in order to be approved by a brand’s
customer service organization. In cases involving high-priced
items, the associated repair costs – if necessary – will also
have to be negotiated between these two parties.

Brands need a more effective way to communicate the“authorized” status of a third party to their clients. Customers
can only benefit from this effort as they are among the mostaffected victims of unscrupulous third parties.

Product journey data
Product journey data acquisition is cumbersome and costly
because of the number of participants involved in a product’s
journey from resellers to service providers, including insurancecompanies, and local authorities such as law enforcement.
This situation leads to poor product journey data, which
has negative impacts on both business productivity andcustomer experience.

a i Lost time for customer careresearch in product history
The lack of easily accessible records of a product’s postpurchase events (repairs, servicing, etc.) is a strain on brands’
customer service apparatuses. Customer service agents tendto spend a majority of their time investigating a product’s
history and recording relevant data points.
These hours are an unnecessary time burden for customer
service employees. This leads to productivity loss that
could be alleviated by better record-keeping systems. It
also has a severe negative impact on the quality of thecustomer experience as customers spend more time being“interrogated” than served.

cross- and up-selling opportunities and initiate an outboundcommunication with the owner. It should also be noted that
this information is usually recorded without consumers’
knowledge and with little available recourse to indicate how
their information might be used.

b i Lack of a lasting link between

brand and owner
The absence of a link between a brand and an object meansthat the brand is usually unaware of major events in anowner’s journey and worse, loses contact with the ownerin the case of a change of ownership. Brands therefore
have difficulty in identifying events which could lead to

There is a need for complete and accurate information
about a product’s journey that could be inexpensively
recorded after the purchase. The owner should, however,be able to retain absolute control of how and with whom thisinformation is shared.

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02

Problems with current
product records

c i Data Protection Regulationand cybercrime

The scale of data breaches is enormous. Every day, nearlyfive million sets of data are lost or stolen; this means that eachsecond of every day, 57 records are affected.7

these breaches have taken place. Government regulations,while important, represent a challenge to a company’s ability
to adapt while preserving its marketing power. In light of those
events and the absence of best practices from companies,
the European Union decided to take a step forward in data
governance by implementing the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), an EU regulation intended to strengthen
and unify data protection for individuals living in the European
Union.

The increase in the number of data breaches over the
past few years has raised greater concerns about who is
responsible for taking care of the world’s data. Individuals
hear on a weekly basis that their personal data have been
compromised, while corporate entities and brands realize
how vulnerable they are to hackers who would wish to dothem financial and reputational harm.

When it becomes enforceable in May of 2018, it will also
regulate the export of personal data outside the EU. The
GDPR aims to give the control of personal data back to
citizens and residents by unifying the regulation within the EU.
Considering the risks, this kind of regulation can only become
more widespread and brands will have to comply.

Even with the support of the most talented cyber-security
specialists, committed black hats know how to exploit
software breaches, and companies can only take action after­­­­­­­­ 6 “Fake Apple Store in China so Convincing That Even Its Staff Are Fooled | Daily Mail Online,” 22 of july 2011.
–
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016885/Fake-Apple-store-China-convincing-staff-fooled.html.
­­­­­­­­ 7 “E-Commerce Fraud Rising, Report Warns.” Inside Retail Asia (blog), December 13, 2017.
–https://insideretail.asia/2017/12/13/e-commerce-fraud-rising-report-warns/.

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03

Arianee’svalue proposition
Arianee’s blockchain perfectly complements thoseorganizations, processes, and technologies, like RFID,
holograms, NFC and all tagging mechanisms,
that are already working to organize product data
in inexpensive and universally accessible ways
and to combat counterfeiting.

W

hile these are focused on hardware solutions, Arianee’s contribution will deliver a completely universal protocol thatenables the matching of all goods in all markets. The creators of hardware solutions won’t lose any value; in fact, theiractivities will be complemented. The primary value added by an open protocol like Arianee’s is its ability to allow all of
humankind the opportunity to collaborate on a single layer, without specific hardware. Keep in mind that in a world of centralized
technology, authenticity can only be insured by the owner of the system, a situation which – by its very nature – undermines trust.
With Arianee, anyone can verify the authenticity of a product simply and confidently with a smartphone. This offers a uniquechance to build trust between brands, owners, and all other parties concerned without removing added value at any level. But
more than that, it unleashes new opportunities to the existing marketplace, particularly for brands, with what we call Smart-Link
Marketing, which creates a revolutionary link between producers and the current owners of the goods they produce. There is also
the benefit of added value, both to brands and their customers, when the authenticity of an asset is reliably verified by Arianee.

For owners
a i protection• Trust in transactions
Protecting owners’ property starts by ensuring that the
product they buy is authentic and that the seller is authorized
to sell the good in question. Although we all have proof of ourgood faith (invoices, warranty cards, etc.), usurpers know how
to manipulate physical documents to make them look real.
They trick buyers by making them think they are purchasing
an authentic asset. Even the most sophisticated andcautious buyers can be fooled and can end up with stolen
or fake assets. We all accept responsibility for ourselves but
navigating an ocean full of traps adds stress and uncertainty
to our lives.

for each unique asset. Moreover, the Arianee blockchain will
list the product’s service history ensuring that the current
owner has maintained the product adequately.

• Lost items and theft protection
Current lost and found systems are imperfect because
objects cannot easily be identified in a database. Having asingle reference source that can be used to check and verify
the legal and ownership status of valuable assets will reunitea lost or stolen product with its rightful owner faster and more
effectively. Furthermore, if a valuable asset is registered on
the Arianee blockchain, robbery becomes pointless. At thatpoint, a thief would be limited to a single option: selling theitem to someone who would willingly traffic in stolen goods.
When Arianee is up and running, the buyer of such a productwill be assuming an ethical and moral responsibility as well
as a legal risk.

The Arianee certificate will build indisputable trust between
owners and third parties as it is backed by a decentralized,
transparent, and unalterable blockchain that makes it
impossible to falsify and easy for anyone to verify.
Arianee is here to help owners face these challenges withconfidence, through the creation of its blockchain certificate

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03

Arianee’svalue proposition
For Brands

Thefts of some so-called connected devices have alreadybeen made futile by the owner’s ability to deactivate a stolen
phone, tablet, etc. so that it becomes useless for anyoneelse. An Arianee ownership certificate will add another layerof protection to these “connected” products, but will also
reduce the attraction of theft and burglary and significantly
undermine the market for stolen goods.

Our brands tell us thatthey are having
a dramatic lack ofsuccess, and all you haveto do is go on the website
and see the proliferationof counterfeits every day.8

b i Data ownership
These days, companies tend to be channel agnostic. Whether
they represent a social media platform, a search engine, ora third-party website, they build marketing funnels that leadcustomers to where the companies want them to go. In theprocess, customers cross a number of trackers that collect
their personal data. Intermediaries then store the navigation
history and analyze their behavior. Those intermediaries neveroffer proof of their own authenticity or their goodwill. They
may offer a certain level of know-how, but they don’t, in fact,
have direct relationships with brands/producers.

Juanita Duggan | CEO of American Apparel and Footwear Association

It is time for customers
to regain controlof their data.

a i The fight against counterfeiting
Arianee’s certificates represent a digital hallmark for original
branded products. The authenticity of the physical productswith which certificates are associated is verified because
the certification is immutable and cannot be falsified orcompromised. These digital verifications of authenticity
are accessible at a single common location – to everyone,
anywhere, anytime.

The Arianee blockchain technology will protect consumers
from exposure to such unauthorized and hidden trackers.
They will be free to build the relationships they want withbrands they choose without having to reveal their personal
data unwillingly.

By producing a digital representation of an asset, Arianee
connects the actual property to a network, thus linking theasset to software. The value of the asset is transferred fromthe physical object to its digital certificate of authenticity.

c i Convenience

An Arianee certificate offers companies, brands andinstitutions an added level of protection, which complements
and reinforces their other counterfeiting solutions like RFIDs
or serial numbers.

Arianee is a brand-agnostic platform where customers caneasily register all their products in one place. They can also
store documents related to a registered product. Each asset
can be linked to content such as the Terms & Conditions of asale, a warranty contract, instructions, a product description,
videos, photographs, etc. Arianee is the owner’s repository for
all information related to their valuables.
This repository will reduce cost and greatly facilitate thesharing of information with third parties, such as in the case of
insurance claims. In fact, the advent of the Arianee certificate
will streamline processes with insurers. The inarguable proofof authenticity and ownership of a product will reduce redtape, save time, and avoid bureaucracy. If your property islost or stolen, you could be compensated by your insurancecompany in a matter of minutes.

­­­­­­­­ 8 “U.S. Online Fraud Attempts Increase 22 Percent during 2017–
Holiday Shopping Season.” ACI Worldwide. Accessed February 20, 2018.
https://www.aciworldwide.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2018/
january/us-online-fraud-attempts-increase-22-percent-during-2017holiday-shopping-season.

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03

Arianee’svalue propositionb i Maintain links with owners
In order to maximize their access to markets, brands turn towholesalers and e-resellers. These intermediaries create abarrier between brands and their customers. While retailers
generally know their most loyal buyers well, they do not, asa rule, share their own databases. This is understable but
on occasion, a dealer may want to call the attention of aparticular group of customers to a special release or a limited
edition product.

distribution. Some of these retailers fraudulently resell to
non-authorized grey market resellers that do not respect
the service quality and pricing constraints imposed by thebrand. Arianee, thanks to the traceability of products, willallow brands to identify the origin of these grey market
products and restrict supplies.

In luxury goods,
when you break theillusion of prestige,
the dream, the prices,it takes away theconfidence. It means slow
death for luxury goods.11

Even in the case of direct sales, brands might lose trackof the final owner. For instance, informal intermediaries
importing luxury goods illegally into countries with hightariffs prevent any attempt to build customer knowledge or
to interact with them. The well-documented phenomenonof Chinese daigous10 is a perfect example of these informalintermediaries.
Thanks to the Arianee Smart-Link, brands will have instantaccess to the ownership information of its registered products
like a VIP card. It allows a brand to target the ideal potential
customer base for a rare or unusual product and to develop
a meaningful and highly personal experience in store both forthe brand and the owner.

Today, when people
buy watches, we don’tknow who the buyers arebecause we have retailers
in between.11

Jean-Claude Biver | Head of LVMH’s Watch Divisiond i Customer care efficiency
Customer care services need an accurate history of a productin order to troubleshoot a problem being experienced by acustomer. A significant share of a customer relation agent’s
time is spent retracing the product’s history.
With Arianee’s protocol, customers can grant instant accessto accurate information about their product. This allows
the customer care agent to bypass the cumbersome
questionnaire a client has to endure and focus instead on
the customer relationship.

François-Henry Bennahmias | CEO of Audemars Piguet

c i  Protection from “moonlighting”

and grey markets
Arianee will allow brands to monitor their products up
and down the supply chain whether during the
manufacturing process at subcontractor factories or when
they are with a distributor. One major issue for brands
is linked to subcontractors “moonlighting” during off hours
and overproducing. These factories produce unauthorized
genuine products and resell them on the black market. The
Arianee protocol will prevent this moonlighting, as a fakecertificate cannot be reproduced. Down the supply chain,in order to maintain a certain service quality in distribution,
brands grant “authorized reseller” status to resellers who
agree to respect certain constraints. These resellers often
receive early delivery of special models or even exclusive­­­­­­­­ 9 Gemalto. “Data Breach Statistics by Year, Industry, More.”–
Breach Level Index.
http://breachlevelindex.com.
­­­­­­­­ 10 It is common for Chinese consumers to dodge the high price of luxury–
goods in their own country by buying them on so-called daigou websites: a
shopper might buy a handbag in Europe, then resell it on one of these websites for more than the European retail price but less than the Chinese one­­­­­­­­ 11 Gray Market Has Become a Necessary Evil for Luxury Watchmakers.”–
Reuters, April 13, 2017.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-watches-grey-market/grey-market-has-become-a-necessary-evil-for-luxury-watchmakers-idUSKBN17E2E8.

17

03

Arianee’svalue proposition

For third parties

c i Enriching third parties• Information Technology Solution Providers

a i Resellers

Information Technology (IT) Solution Providers will be thenecessary bridge between legacy IT systems and the Arianee
blockchain. They will build the interface for brands and otherthird parties to interact with the Arianee blockchain.

Reputation is an important factor for resellers and service
providers as it offers proof of the quality of their services and theintegrity of their workforces. These days, however, reputations
are influenced by reviews placed on a wide range of platforms.
These, by their nature, are susceptible to unverified biased
reviews which, so far, have proven difficult to prevent efficiently.

Thanks to the Arianee protocol, IT Solution Providers will beable to offer a new “Owner Relationship Management” service
to brands. This new service will offer analytics dashboards andother tools to handle a brand’s relationship with its productowners.

Arianee will allow third-party service providers to collectreviews from customers who can prove that they haveactually used the services delivered by these parties.

• Insurance

Moreover, resellers will be able to stay in touch with pastclients easily, thanks to the communication channels openedby the Arianee platform. This will allow them to send messages
or respond to inquiries from past or potential clients.

While many third parties will benefit from using the Arianee
platform, the insurance sector is probably the most obvious
potential beneficiary.
Insurance companies will, for example, be able to process
their customers’ claims much more efficiently. The Arianee
blockchain will allow them to prove the authenticity andownership of a claimant as well as to check the accurate
repair or replacement costs as indicated by a brand or thirdparty reseller.

b i Expert
Third-party experts can provide authenticity certification
and an appraisal of a product’s value. These services canbe marketed to owners and brands directly on the Arianee
platform.

The information stored on the Arianee blockchain could
also allow insurers or other fraud prevention organizations tomonitor potential insurance fraud. Tracking the history of anasset will allow them to identify fraud cases, both before andafter a claim has been processed.

Moreover, their expert assessments benefit from the same
traceability and guarantee of authenticity as all assets stored
on the Arianee blockchain are also protected with the samelevel of security that all certificates receive.

18

04

Arianee
User Journeys

T

he Arianee platform serves three types of users: owners, brands, and a multitude of third parties. In this section, we will
explore the user journey of the two key groups of users: owners and brands. These user journeys should be understood as
simplified examples rather than as reflections of the entire complexity of the Arianee platform.

OwnersKey Action:• Create a Vault by generating a public key and create a
private key for security.

a i Create Vault

Key Value proposition:• The Vault is a convenient repository for all of an owner’s
products.

The first action an owner will take on the Arianee platform is tocreate a Vault. The Vault is a secure and convenient repository
for all of an owner’s products. The owner will be prompted tocreate a private key, which will secure the access to the Vault.
Its creation will then generate a Vault public key, which is the
Vault’s address.

19

04

Arianee
User Journeys
An owner can send his/her Smart-Asset to the manufacturing brand to confirm the product’s authenticity. This will add
a certificate of authenticity to the Smart-Asset and the brandcan automatically attach all relevant documentation.

b i Add a Smart-Asset

The certificate of authenticity is linked to the brand with a
Smart-Link, which allows the brand to send communications
to the owner for as long as the certificate of authenticity isvalid. The owner may elect to share updates on his/herSmart-Asset history with the brand.
Key Actions:• Share a Smart-Asset ID with manufacturing brand.
• Receive a certificate of authenticity.
Key Value proposition:

The second step for an owner will be to create a Smart- Assetby registering a product and adding it to the Vault. The
creation of a Smart-Asset will also create the first certificate
in your Smart-Asset history: a certificate of ownership.
This certificate of ownership is a unique, unfalsifiable proof ofyour right of ownership of your product.

• A Smart-Asset certifies the authenticity of a product.

d i Get insurance forall your Smart-Assets

Alternatively, you might receive the Smart-Asset directlyfrom the retailer or the brand from which you purchased
your product. The product might come with some additional
history of events that were associated with the product prior
to your purchase.
Key Actions:• Register a product by creating a Smart-Asset and add it
to the Vault.

• Generate a certificate of ownership - proof that you are therightful owner of this product.

Key Value proposition:

An owner might elect to receive services through third
parties. Here we will examine the example of insurance.

• The Smart-Asset is an unfalsifiable proof of ownership.

To receive insurance, an owner will first grant theinsurance company a “read access” to the entire Vault
or to the selected Smart-Assets. The insurer will use thecertificate of ownership and the certificate of authenticity
to estimate the value of the products to be insured andto calculate the associated premium.

c i Authenticate an object

with manufacturing brand

Key Actions:• Grant “read access” to a third party.
• Authorize the third party to add a product history eventto the Smart-Asset.

Key Value proposition:• Facilitate the sharing of product information with athird-party service provider.

20

04

Arianee
User Journeys

e i Get an appraisal foryour Smart-Asset

Key Action:• Verify authorized status.
• Write access.
An owner is considering selling a product anddecides to get an expert appraisal in order to havea more accurate estimate of the selling price. He/
she searches for an expert third party who has gone
through the Arianee validation process or has received
delegation from a verified brand.

Key Value proposition:• Instant unfalsifiable proof of authorized status protects theowner from unscrupulous retailers.

• Proof of servicing.

The owner then shares access to the Smart Asset with theexpert, who is then granted the right to add an appraisal
stamp to the Smart-Asset. Once the appraisal has been
completed, the owner can elect to share the information
with the insurance company to update the premium.

g i Receive a message from brand

Key Actions:• Find an expert in the Arianee community.
• Check the expert’s reputation with actual customers.
 rant “writing access” to the expert third party, who can add•G
an appraisal certificate to the Smart-Asset.

• Automatically share from third party to third party.
Key Value proposition:• T heArianee third-party community leverages theblockchain to provide enhanced services to owners.

Because the authorized reseller shares information withthe manufacturing brand, the manufacturing brand uses its
certificate of authenticity Smart-Link to send a message to theowner. This message informs the owner that a new accessory
collection is now available.

 utomatic transfer of information from third party to third•A
party.

Key Actions:f i Maintenance for your product• Information sharing between third parties and brands.
• Messaging channel directly connected to the owner.

The owner wishes to service the product before selling it
to increase the likelihood of a sale. In order to preserve thewarranty, the servicing needs to be performed by a reseller
authorized by the brand. The owner’s local watchmaker claims
that it is authorized by the brand. The owner then checks thewatchmaker’s authorized status on the Arianee blockchain
and grants it a “writing access” to add a servicing event to the
Smart-Asset.

Key Value proposition:

 essaging channel to the owner is open thanks to the•Mcertificate of authenticity.

• B rands receive owner journey insights.

21

04

Arianee
User Journeys

h i Sell your product

Brand Journey

to another person

a i Register as a verified brandA brand’s first action will be to register as a verified brandwith the Arianee brand verification process. While any person
can grant an expert stamp attesting to the authenticity of a
Smart-Asset, Smart Authenticity certificates can only bedelivered by the manufacturing brand. Smart-Atuthenticity
certificates grant the verified brand special access to theowner, and brands can receive alerts associated with certain
types of Smart-Asset events.
Key Actions:• R egister as a verified brand by going through the Arianee
brand verification process.

Key Value proposition:

The owner has found a buyer. To transfer the ownership of
the product, the owner only needs the public address for thebuyer’s Vault. However, in order to prevent fraud, the two parties
will create a smart contract that will deliver the certificate ofownership only when the payment has been received. Until that
happens, the certificate of ownership is locked. Once the SmartAsset has effectively been transferred, the new owner still has aview of past events but sensitive data is encrypted to protect theprevious owner’s privacy.

• Ensure trust in transactions.
• Prevent fraud.

b i Initiate your Brand Data Hub
Once the brand is granted verified status, it can initiate its data
hub. The data hub is the center of the brand’s interactions
with the Arianee platform. The data hub is composed of threecore modules:

Key Actions:• T ransfer of the certificate of ownership from one Vault
to another.

• The Product Registry, where brands keep track of all objects

 reation of a smart-contract that conditions the release•Cfor which they have delivered certificates of authenticity.

of the certificate of ownership upon payment.

• T he Communication Center, where brands can sendcommunications to the owners of products that have been
granted a certificate of authenticity.

Key Value proposition:

 erification process to ensure certificates of authenticity•V• The Authorized Retailer Management System, where brands

are genuine when issued.

can interact with their network of authorized retailers.

Key Actions:• Connect to the data hub.
Key Value proposition:

 ata center for brands’ products, owner communication•Dand retailer networks.

22

04

Arianee
User Journeysc i Deliver a certificate

f i Perform analytics onUpon request from a product’s owner, a brand can delivera certificate of authenticity. The unfalsifiable certificate opens
a direct link between a brand and the product’s owner. The
product is thereafter added to the brand’s Product Registry.

The brand wishes to send a communication about its
soon-to-be-released accessories to a subset of owners. The
brand queries its product registry to identify all registeredproduct owners who purchased a specific model more than ayear ago and sends them a message to them.

of authenticity

your product registry

Key Actions:
Key Actions:• Deliver a certificate of authenticity for a product.

• Perform analytics on a product’s lifetime journey.

Key Value proposition:
Key Value proposition:• P revent counterfeiting.
 reate a direct link between the brand•C• Identify key events for up-sell or cross-sell opportunities.
• Identify macro trends in a product’s journey.

and the product owner.

d i Grant authorized statusg i Control the authorized

Verified brands can grant an authorized status to a retailer.
This provides a badge of legitimacy to the retailer. Owners
can verify the authorized status of a retailer on the blockchain
before a purchase or another service. The authorized retailer
is listed in the authorized retailer management system.

A brand has been made aware that some of its products
are on sale on the grey market. It investigates where theseproducts come from. It finds the Smart-Asset of one orseveral products on sale in this marketplace and search
for them in their product registry to identify which retailer
sold these products to the grey market.

to a retailer

retailer network

Key Actions:
Key Actions:• Grant authorized status to retailers.

• Perform data analysis on authorized retailers to identify
potential abuse.

Key Value proposition:

 anage a brand’s authorized retailer network.
•M

Key Value proposition:• P revent grey market sales.
 aintain a uniform customer experience within•M

e i Send a communication

to an ownera brand’s retailer network

The brand sends a communication to all its product owners
inviting them to an exclusive private sale event.
Key Actions:• Send a message to product owners in your registry.
Key Value proposition:

 aintain a communication channel to a product’s owner•Mregardless of whether the product has changed ownership.

23

05

Arianee’s
protocol.arianee’s ecosystem

The full-feature Arianee protocol is built
for three groups of users:

Each type of user interacts with the Arianee platformusing a dedicated API:

• Products’ owners,• Brands,• Third parties.

• The Vault for products’ owners,• The data hub for brands,• The community toolkit for third parties.

A

ll interactions between users take place through Smart-Links. All Smart-Links are recorded on the Arianee
blockchain; however, user privacy is respected thanks to what is called zero-knowledge proof technology.
Essentially, a zero-knowledge proof is a process that can demonstrate that a statement is true without revealing
any additional information beyond what it is trying to prove.

24

05

Arianee’s
protocolOwnersblockchain and safely store them in their Vaults. Each asset isassociated with a unique and immutable ID. While the Arianee
blockchain is accessible to anyone, all information including
Smart-Assets are encrypted, using time-tested encryption
methods to protect the owners’ privacy.

Owners are the primary users of the Arianee platform.
They register their products as Smart-Assets in their Vaults,
either by listing the products themselves or by taking
possession of the Smart-Asset from another owner, a brand,
or a retailer. Owners can then enrich the Smart-Assets withcertificates and stamps provided by brands or third party
experts. Some examples include certificates of authenticity
delivered by brands, servicing history stamps from expert
third parties, etc.

Each Arianee Smart-Asset contains a log which lists all
associated events. An event is a structured data with a date, atype, an issuer and a metadata.
There are three types of associated events:

 wnership certificates which can only be granted when•Oa change of ownership takes place.

 uthenticity certificates granted by verified brands•A

a i Create owner’s “Vault”

and verified expert third parties.

• Tags that reflect other episodes in the Smart-Assets

The Vault is an easy-to-use online repository where
owners can register all their products and the associateddocumentation free of charge. It is, in effect, an owner’s
product portfolio. The Vault is pseudonymous, which allows
even greater security as owners can elect not to provide
their real identity.

history. They can be recorded by any user with accessto the Vault.

c i Transfer of Smart-Asset ownership
When an Arianee asset is created, it is the exclusive propertyof the owner. Thanks to the blockchain, only the owner isable to activate primary features like, for example, transfers.
A transferred asset is sealed forever, and the previous owner
can’t recover the right to that asset. Neither the issuer, theprevious owner, nor even the Arianee team are able tochange this status, guaranteeing trust and confidence inthe whole ecosystem.

Owner’s can easily create a Vault by generating a publickey (the Vault’s address) on the blockchain and generate a
private key (the Vault’s secrete decryption key).
Information entered by owners is stored on the Arianee
blockchain, which assures that it cannot be altered byanyone. The Arianee blockchain is private by design. All datais encrypted to protect the owner’s privacy, and the integrityof the information stored on the blockchain is certified by thezero-knowledge proof protocol.

d i Smart-Link: Read access

The owner’s Vault is designed to respect the latest privacy
requirements such as the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR). The GDPR was created by the European Union
to enhance and unify data protection for the citizens of its
member nations. It also covers the export of personal data
outside the EU and is intended to give its residents control
over their data while simplifying the regulatory environment
for international businesses. It was adopted in April of 2016
and will become enforceable on the 25th of May, 2018.
The Arianee protocol is, by design, GDPR compliant: users
are anonymous, no personal data is ever recorded on theblockchain and the users (both owners and brands) control
access to all their data.

Owners can grant the right to third parties or brands to readdata linked to assets in their Vaults. This operation allows
owners to share certain information about selected assets or
all the assets stored in their Vaults.

e i Smart-Link: Lending Smart-Assets
Instead of a definitive transfer, some use cases need a way tolend assets (marketplace, after-sales servicing, etc.) for a certain
period of time. An owner will be able to lend an item withdifferent criteria (total duration, minimum duration, etc.) andremain the real owner of an asset. This will help define new use
cases and build a global ecosystem with other parties.

b i Create Smart-Assets

f i Smart-Link: Delegation“Smart-Assets” can be described as the main objects on the
Arianee protocol. They are a unique representation of anowner’s product on the blockchain. A Smart-Asset has at leasta serial number, a brand public key, an issuing date, an owner
and an ownership status (owned, lost, stolen, destroyed,
consumed). Owners can register their products on the Arianee

Owners can delegate their authority to a brand or a third
party and allow them to perform operations. This action is
the feature enabling the creation of smart contracts anddecentralized apps on the Arianee blockchain.

25

05

Arianee’s
protocolBrandsc i Smart-Link: Brand Messaging

Brands need to go through the verification process to be
granted the powers reserved for verified brands. Brands
issue Smart-Authenticity certificates, which allow them tomaintain contact with the current owner of a certified product.
Brands can send messages through the Smart-Authenticity
certificate to the owner. They can also delegate certification to
relevant third parties, including experts, retailers, and anyone
else qualified to enrich the brand’s status.

Brands issuing Smart Authenticity certificates have theunique possibility to send messages to the certificate
and then, by “rebound”, to the owner of an item. Becauseof Arianee’s characterics, the issuer will be able to send
messages to the current owner of a certificate, even if they
were not the initial buyer.

Smart Authenticity certificates can only be issued by verified
brands. These brands go through a verification process toensure that they have the legal rights to represent the brand.

This messaging possibility allows brands to maintain aconnection whith product owners throughout the object’s
lifetime, wich is something which is currently nearly
impossible. For the first time in history, owner and brand will
be able to reconnect even if they don’t know each other.
Because of the asynchronous state of the blockchain,owners will have the opportunity to select the kinds ofmessages they wish to receive. This will prevent spam, build
trust, and create a fair environment.

The data hub is the center of brands’ interactions with the
Arianee platform. It provides product life analytics in threecore modules:

d i Smart-Link: Read Accessa i Initiate Brand Data Hub• T he Product Registry, where brands manage authenticatedBrands can grant the right to third parties to read data in theirdata hub. This operation allows brands to share different
types of information about assets registered in their ProductRegistry. Similarly, brands can also share sent messages andauthorized retailer information.

objects;• T he Communication Center, where brands reach out toproduct owners;• T he Distribution Network Management System, wherebrands interact with their distribution network.

e i Smart-Link: Brand Delegation
A brand can delegate its authority to a third party, which
would be allowed to perform operations normally assumed
by the brand. This action is the feature enabling the creationof smart contracts and decentralized apps on the Arianee
blockchain.

b i Smart-Link: Smart Authenticity
Smart Authenticity holds a special place in the Arianee
protocol. Authenticity is at the heart of Arianee’s value
proposition. Verified brands can grant certificates ofauthenticity to products stored in a Vault at the owner’s
request. As long as the authenticity is valid, the brand
maintains an open communication channel with the productowner, regardless of future changes in ownership.

f i Smart-Link: Deliver Authorized

Retailer Certificate

Verified brands are the ultimate authorities for the verificationof the authenticity of the objects they produce. Therefore,brands should have a special relationship with owners.
Brands are able to issue certificates of authenticity for owners’
objects, either at the time of sale or at an owner’s request
at a later date. Only the authorized brand can confirm thata certificate’s public key is, in fact, from the brand.

Brands can deliver an authorized retailer certificate to a third
party. This certificate can be consulted by owners to confirm
a third party’s authorized status.

26

05

Arianee’s
protocolThird-party community

b i Retailers
In most sectors, brands only sell a limited percentage of theirproducts directly to customers. Retailers represent a majorpart of the customer experience. Brands can delegate someof their prerogatives to these retailers. Moreover, retailers
need access to mechanisms that will both establish theirreputation and protect them from fraud.

a i Experts
While brands are the entities most legitimately positioned
to provide authenticity certificates for products they
manufacture, expert appraisals may also be necessary.
Whether for antiques or fine art, experts can, in somecases, be the sources who are best qualified to provide a
certificate of authenticity. Experts shall therefore be granted
a right to provide authenticity certificates whose value will beenhanced by the reputations of these experts. Experts need
to be verified either through the Arianee verification process
or receive delegation from a verified brandc i Enriching third parties
Enriching third parties will develop decentralized applications
leveraging the Arianee blockchain. They will provide services
to owners, brands and other third parties through theblockchain data sharing process.

27

06

Business
Case studiesAs detailed previously, Arianee’s role is to be focused on
the protocol’s backbone and to develop and enable
many applications based on our protocol. However,to initialize and boost the ecosystem, we have planned todevelop the first application based on the Arianee protocol.

Arianee Luxury
In 2017, the personal luxury good market represented a total
value of €262 billon (+5% year-on-year), the highest amounton record.12 Counterfeiting has a particularly adverse effecton the sales and profits of luxury brands, which, becauseof their prestige and the high prices of their products,
are especially susceptible to such fraudulent behavior.
Counterfeiting and the growing market for fake goods canerode the trust between a brand and its customers and canundermine a company’s precious reputation.
While some luxury brands have stepped up their campaigns
against counterfeiters, the legal paralysis resulting from thecomplexity of prosecuting a counterfeiter or a distributor of
fake good creates an ideal space for Arianee. According tomost forecasts, brick and mortar stores sales will remain the
primary points of sale for luxury goods. Meanwhile 75% of
total sales will take place in physical stores, the rise of online
sales (25%)13 will undoubtedly represent a challenge thatbrands need, both to maintain their images and to preserve
the trust and the confidence of their online buyers.

a i Go to market:

Three adoption streams

 ser centric and free of use for individuals•U

The ICO will be the opportunity to build a committed community.
To reinforce the use of Arianee, a portion of the tokens will begiven to early users who introduce items that need certification.

• T hird parties: Experts & service companies

The second-hand expert authentication authorities (Sotheby’s,
Christie’s, Vestiaire Collective, insurance experts, etc.)
will be able to stamp items: injecting trust and acquiring brandawareness plus the Smart-Link with the product owners. IT
Service companies will work on IT tool adaptations for brands
or experts and create new features (warranties, service books,social features, lost and found; or will simply create new
businesses sparked by Arianee’s protocol).
­­­­­­­­– 12 “Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study, Fall–Winter 2017.”
Bain Company.
http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/luxury-goods-worldwidemarket-study-fall-winter-2017.aspx.

• B rands

Brands will be enrolled in protocol shaping and governance.
Active lobbying will be used to communicate Arianee’s virtues.
Technology will be delivered that seamlessly includes Arianee
in the current retail experience without too much effort. There
will be an early start with the limited series of pioneering brands.

­­­­­­­­– 13 “Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study, Fall–Winter 2017.”
Bain Company.
http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/luxury-goods-worldwidemarket-study-fall-winter-2017.aspx.

28

06

Business
Case studies

Personal luxury goods(market value in billion dollars)

Source : OCDE reporthttps://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/
fake-fashion-fuels-vast-illicit-profits-sea-of-human-misery• T he global personal luxury goods market is highly

Arianee is a great fit for the luxury market; moreover, wehave chosen to build our first MVP applications for the luxury
industry because it presents several advantages that will
facilitate the adoption of Arianee:

fragmented, with the presence of both global vendors andlocal players.

 ith rising competition, manufacturers are bringing in•Winnovative new products to meet the changing demandsof customers in accordance with the latest fashion andlifestyle trends.

• T he luxury industry is global and distributed worldwide.

Considering all segments, the luxury market grew by 5% toan estimated €1.2 trillion globally in 2017. Worldwide, thepersonal luxury goods market experienced growth acrossall regions, driven both by more robust local consumption(up 4%) and by strong tourist purchases (up 6%).

• In the luxury Industry, information technology (IT) is not• S erial numbers on products are common. Most luxury goods s a large number of worldwide luxury brands are based•Ainternalized; brands usually use external technology
company for their needs.

have a unique authentication identifier. Brands primarily use
serial numbers, holograms tags, NFC, and RFID.

in France and Switzerland, it’s an industry with which the
Arianee team is well connected.

29

06

Business
Case studies
VIP identification:b i Owner’s App

The in-store experience can vary according to a customer’s
profile. When they are in a store, owners can opt to scan theirsmartphones. Depending on selected metrics - which could
include the type or number of products owned, the last time
the customer acquired a product or any other information theowner might wish to share, the retailer will customize eachowner’s in-store experience to meet his or her profile.

The Owner’s App is a mobile application which is the mainuser experience for luxury valuable product owners. Thisapplication is where owners can access their Smart-Assets
stored in their Vault. They can also easily interact with the
Arianee blockchain to perform all basic owner actions suchas granting read access, adding a new asset, lending ortransferring an asset.

One touch insurance claim:

While the application allows owners to access and write on
the blockchain, the Owner’s App stores some information
locally, such as chat messages that are not destined to be
stored on the blockchain. The Owner’s App enables countless
seamless experiences enabled by the Arianee blockchain.
Here are a few examples:

The information sharing functionality on the Owner’s App
allows owners to greatly simplify the administrative burden
when dealing with insurance companies. With a simple tap,they can share information with the insurance company about
all - or selected - products in their Vaults in order to request aquote or file a claim.
Declare an object stolen or lost:
The Owner’s App also allows a user to declare a product lostor stolen. The owner simply needs to select the Smart-Assetin the Vault and attach a temporary stolen or lost certificate,
which is stored on the blockchain. This token is publicly visibleon the blockchain in order to discourage resale.

Customer Service Relationships:
Customer service is greatly facilitated through the use of
the Owner’s App. A customer can instantly grant access to a
product’s history to a customer service agent. If the productneeds to be sent in for repairs, the owner can “lend” theSmart-Asset to the brand for a limited period. This action
opens a communication channel with the customer service
department, allowing the owner to monitor the status of
the repairs directly in the app. Customer service agents orowners can also initiate chat channels to send inquiries. Whenthe owner’s product is returned, the details of the customer
service relationship can still be consulted in the Smart-Asset.

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06

Business
Case studies
ARIA Token purchase:c i Brand terminal

Paid functionalities such as messaging and certification
require a certain number of ARIA tokens to remunerate thefacilitators maintaining the ecosystem. While brands canbuy ARIA on the open market, they can also simply use fiat
currency (dollars, euros, etc.) on the terminal instead. Fiat
will automatically be exchanged for ARIA whenever a record
needs to be certified to the blockchain.

The brand terminal is a web interface. It is the main userinterface for the different functional teams in the company.
It allows both basic interactions with the blockchain andadditional services that can be linked to existing IT systems
with third-party integrations.
Customer Care:
The customer care center is a module allowing seamless
interactions with owners for their customer support needs.
When contacted by an owner, customer care agents caninitiate a conversation and can request access to and consult
the owner’s product history in order to troubleshoot instantly.
If the product needs to be sent in for maintenance, themaintenance agent will log the maintenance in the Arianee
blockchain and will keep the owner informed on the progress
throughout the servicing.

d i Third party example applications
Third parties can access data on the Arianee blockchain.
This will enable an ecosystem of service providers todevelop apps using the open source and free Arianee
protocol. Here are a few examples of apps that could be
developed by third-party service providers
Insurance:

Owner communication:

Current insurance application and claim processes areadministratively cumbersome. This is a result of the high risks
of insurance fraud and the need to prove the actual status of
an insured product (in possession, stolen, lost, etc.).

Brands can send communications to owners who received
authenticity certificates for the products they produced.
This communication can be tailored according to the Vault
profile and relevant metrics such as the date of purchase of a
specific model. For example, a brand could send a reminder
for scheduled service on the second purchase anniversary or
an invitation to a private sales event.

Arianee can alleviate the need for such manual processes by
providing a trustless proof of an object’s status. If an ownerdeclares an item to be lost or stolen, the Smart-Asset canbe immediately frozen and only the insurer is be able tomanage/update its status. It would be impossible for the user
to transfer the stolen item.

Authorized retailers:
A brand can connect to its data hub and log into the authorized
retailer management system. There they can search fora retailer registered on Arianee and grant it an authorizedcertificate. This certificate is publicly visible and any Arianee
user can verify it. The authorized status allows the brand todelegate some of its authentication privileges.

Thanks to the information that is accessible through the
Smart-Asset, an insurance reimbursement or a quote for a
premium can be instantly assessed.
Customs:
Transporting a commercial good across international borders
requires significant customs and duty filings, usually in the formof an ATA carnet. This can become a uselessly redundant task
for commercial samples already registered on the Arianee
blockchain. The Arianee blockchain already offers a trustless
proof of a product’s identity and status as a commercial
sample. A single tagging on the Arianee blockchain could
prevent the sale of the product and therefore offer sufficientguarantees to customs officials.

Grey market product tracing:
After identifying the serial number of an asset sold on thegrey market, a brand can consult its product registry on the
Arianee blockchain and follow the digital trail to the original
reseller of the product. These classified transactions can thenbe used to perform pattern recognition analysis to uncover
macro insights on the status of grey markets.
Product analytics:
The brand terminal offers access to a full suite of analytics.
They will be able to access a wide range of global analytics
about registered products such as the volume of transferredassets or the average holding period for specific models.

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Expanding to othervaluable objects

Lost and found:With the Arianee protocol, an owner could declare an item lostor stolen the moment he/she realizes it is missing. Accordingly,
based on the protocol, we can create the world’s first global lostand found service. The app or website would list every item lostby or stolen from a member of the community.

While luxury products will be the main focus of the initial
Arianee development, there would be a natural, organic
expansion of the Arianee solution to other valuable objects
including, for example, artwork, musical instruments, wine,
and antiques. Below is an overview of each market and its
potential for Arianee.

This service could also add a reward system for the person
who returns a lost object. Once a user finds an item, he could
use the service and thanks to the Arianee protocol, determinewith 100% certainty who has lost it. A message would be sent
to the current owner through the Arianee app to announce
that the lost item as been found. The platform can then serveas an intermediary between the two parties to manage thetransactions and shipping or meeting, including the return of
the item to its rightful owner and, potentially, a reward for the
person who found it.

Musical instruments:
The global market for musical instruments and audio gear isenormous, worth some $17 billion, according to The Music
Trades.14 Although there are some fake instruments on themarket, the greater challenge - and the area where Arianee
would be of considerable use - is the trade in stolen instruments.
Quality instruments generally have unique serial numbers andthe added layer of protection provided by Arianee would makeit more difficult for thieves to traffic in stolen goods and easier forhonest consumers to be certain that the seller of an instrument
has, in fact, the right to sell it.

Decentralized marketplaces:
An interesting development with blockchain protocols
is the emergence of decentralized marketplaces. These
marketplaces free of trusted intermediaries are madepossible by the trustless security that such protocols
enable.

Artwork:

In such a decentralized marketplace, an owner could
put a Smart-Asset up for sale online and request bids frompotential buyers. The buyer could then unpublish the SmartAsset once the sale has been concluded and automaticallytransfer the Smart-Asset to the buyer (who is, of course,
the new owner). This transaction could be done completely
pseudonymously and securely. Ownership heritage would
also be facilitated. Imagine that a classic car had been in a
family and 20 years after it had been sold, the previous owner
would like - for whatever reason - to contact the current owner.
If the previous owner had the public key of the Smart-Asset,
it would be no problem to send a message to the current
owner.

The online art market is growing dramatically. In fact, according
to Bloomberg15, it is increasing at an annual rate of about 24%.
Its market cap is expected to exceed $9.5 billion annually by
2020. At the auction house Sotheby’s, internet buyers spent $155
million in 2016, up 20% from the previous year. Its competitor,
Christies, saw a doubling of its online-only revenues in 2017.
While the growth and the potential of online sales are impressive,
they have led to several chronic challenges for the global art
market. The most obvious of these are counterfeiting and fraud.

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counterfeiting and the other fraudulent activities that haveplagued the industry.

In fact, Yan Walther, CEO of Geneva-based FAEI, says that anoften-heard claim that half of the art circulating on the market isforged or misattributed is likely to be a conservative estimate16.
A piece of art linked to an Arianee certificate would allow
a buyer to confirm its provenance while guaranteeing thevalidity of a transaction. And as the art changed hands, theblockchain technology would confirm – forever – the identityof the artist and of the successive owners.

Antiques:
For centuries, people have been interested in art, furniture andother collectibles. This interest generates value, of course, andthe value has led to a proliferation of fake antiques and forgeries.
Not only would a digital certificate of authenticity linked to an
antique eliminate a buyer’s uncertainty in the purchase of a
product, it would also trace its journey through time.

Wine:
In the fine wine industry, the counterfeit market makes up an
estimated 20% of international sales if all types of fake wine
are considered. Problems with document tampering and otherfraudulent activities continue to affect the entire supply chain
pipeline – from the grape to the glass – and every step in
between.,17/18

As is the case with any item of value, a buyer who purchases
an antique online runs the risk of buying a fake or improperly
described product or of being the victim of fraudulent behavior.
An antique linked to an Arianee certificate would allow a buyer
to confirm its provenance while guaranteeing the validity of atransaction. And as the ownership of an antique changes, theblockchain technology would verify the authenticity of the item
and add a layer of confidence in the transaction.

To date, authenticators could identify an individual bottle asa counterfeit; however, they haven’t found a way to certify abottle as authentic because of the susceptibility of documents
to tampering and the inability to ensure that a certificate would
remain with a bottle of wine as it changed ownership andlocation.

Other Markets

An Arianee certificate would remain digitally connected tothe bottle of wine to which it was originally linked, ensuring
the provenance of the bottle and reducing the possibility of

Arianee’s protocol has the potential to benefit many
fields, and will enhance trust and generate opportunities
on a number of levels. Pharmaceuticals, weapons, pets
and food products, for instance, present similar needs
for traceability and authenticity. While the industrial andcommercial processes mean that business architecture
and user interface will need to be specifically crafted, theArianee blockchain can be the foundation upon which
solutions for these industries are built.

­­­­­­­­ 16 “Fine Arts Experts Institute: Lab Sleuths in Geneva Help Art World Uncover Fakes.” September 19, 2014.
–
http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=73562#.WqTx9pPFKuW.
­­­­­­­­– 17 “Everledger Secures the First Bottle of Wine on the Blockchain.” Fintech Finance (blog), December 9, 2016.
http://www.fintech.finance/01-news/everledger-secures-the-first-bottle-of-wine-on-the-blockchain/­­­­­­­­ 18 “How To Avoid Buying Fake Wine.” Accessed March 13, 2018.
–https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanniecholee/2017/01/22/how-to-avoid-buying-fake-wine/#729690149daa.

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D

Compare this with a regular database: its contents are stored
in the memory of a specific computer system, meaning thatthe data can be destroyed or corrupted by anyone with
sufficient access to the system. Accordingly, the securityof your data is only as reliable as the human-controlled
system hosting the database.

ecentralized blockchains present significant undeniable
benefits compared to traditional databases. Theybring a level of distributed trust through consensus
mechanisms that enable viable shared decentralized databases.

However, this architecture means that blockchains present
some limitations. They are not efficient for storing vast amountsof data due to the network limitations. Today blockchains arealso limited as to the number of transactions they can process
at any given time. This is because the number of transactions
that can be processed can never exceed the processing speedof any one node participating in the blockchain.

Stability:
Thanks to their built- in redundancy, blockchain-powered
databases are also highly fault-tolerant. Each transaction has tobe processed by every node, so no individual node is essential
to the database as a whole. Because the nodes are connectedto each other in a dense peer-to-peer fashion, numerous
communication links would have to fail for the system tomalfunction. Thanks to the blockchain, a node that goes
down is always able to catch up on any missed transactions.

This leads to a key problem that currently affects blockchain,
namely scalability. While innovative individuals andcompanies attempt to overcome the current limitations ofpurely blockchain-based databases, the current prevailing
wisdom is to combine the strengths of a conventional
database with that of a blockchain. We have adopted sucha hybrid model to combine the advantages of both worlds.
The blockchain will be used as the immutable sharedrepository for all valid assets registered on the Arianee
platform. However, to prevent pollution of the Arianee
blockchain by fake or irrelevant data, each asset enteredby a user will be warehoused until it is certified by a verified
brand or expert, at which point it will be recorded on the
Arianee blockchain.

When blockchain nodes are connected, they keep themselves
in sync automatically. Two additional characteristicso f blockchain-powered databases are particularly usefulfor Arianee. First, nodes can be easily added to or removed
from the network. Second, external users can addresstransactions to an individual node or to multiple nodes, andthe transactions are automatically shared with all the othernodes on the consensus blockchain.
Performance:

Below is a discussion on the choice made for the Arianee
technical implementation.

It should be pointed out that blockchains are, by theirnature, slower than centralized databases for threesignificant reasons: each blockchain transaction has to bedigitally signed and verified; energy has to be invested
in ensuring that consensus is reached by the nodes in
the network, a process which may involve back andforth communication; and finally, each transaction on a
blockchain has to be processed independently by every
node in the network. This redundancy means that theblockchain is doing an enormous amount of work to reachthe same end result as its centralized counterpart. But
these attributes – signature verification, consensus, andthe redundant processing – ultimately combine to suit theplatform ideally to Arianee’s needs.

Why Arianee chose
to use a blockchain
In considering the best possible technological database for the
Arianee platform, it was important to consider all of the existing
options. We realized early in the process that a blockchain
solution was ideally suited to our needs but the decision wasn’t
taken lightly and we’d like to talk about some of the factorsthat influenced not only our adoption of blockchain but more
specifically, a consortium blockchain model.

Immutability:
Disintermediation:

Immutability is a core feature of blockchain technology.
When the participating nodes have agreed to a transaction
and shared it on the distributed network, it cannot be
undone. This means that a provider of data can provethat his/her data hasn’t been altered and conversely (andlogically), the recipients of that data can be confident thatthe data hasn’t been altered. Centralized databases can’t
offer the same assurances.

This complicated sounding term means, simply, that a
blockchain makes it possible to share a database across socalled boundaries of trust without an intermediary. Blockchaintransactions have their own inherent proofs of validity andauthorization and thus, don’t require a central administrator
to enforce them. Transactions can be verified, processed, andexecuted independently by multiple nodes (users) and theblockchain, acting as a consensus mechanism, ensures thatthose nodes stay in sync.

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Summary:

Public Blockchain:

In conclusion, it should be noted that blockchain technology is
not intended as a universal across-the-board replacement fortraditional databases, which will always be especially well-suitedfor the recording of some types of information. Blockchain is,
however, ideal for Arianee and its ambitious vision.

Blockchain technology was designed to eliminate intermediaries
in any situation involving the exchange of assets. Simply
expressed, it sets up block of peer-to-peer transactions, each ofwhich is verified and synchronized with every node (user) before
it is written to the system.

As we have reported, one of the great benefits of blockchain
is its decentralized nature. It should be clear at this point thatdata stored in a centralized database can be corrupted orcompromised by anyone who might have access to it. We
pointed out that the security of a centralized database canonly be as reliable as its administrator’s infrastructure. Because
the data storage that characterizes blockchain technology isdecentralized, security is an inherent part of its structure andthus, perfectly suited to Arianee and its needs.

Only after these transactions have been verified and synced
can the next transaction be executed. Anyone with a computerconnected to the internet can set him-/herself up as a node,
which is then synchronized to the entire blockchain history.
The need for each transaction to be verified and synced with every
node makes a public blockchain extremely secure but also slow
and costly. With each new node that joins the public blockchain,
the amount of electricity required to run a transaction increases.
The advantages are that each transaction is public, users canmaintain anonymity, and the network is fully decentralized.
Private Blockchain:
Private blockchains, to a certain extent, allow intermediaries backin. ‘Write permissions’ are centralized to a single authority. ‘Read
permissions’ can be public or restricted to an extent determinedby the organization, depending on the needs of a specificapplication. Private blockchains allow users to take advantage ofblockchain technology by setting up groups whose participants
can verify transactions in the context of the organizing entity.

traditional approachb
Database is controlled by acentral and trusted third-party

Private blockchains are more susceptible to security breaches
than public blockchains but they are particularly well suited tosituations that require compliance with data privacy rules andregulatory issues.

Blockchain approach
Each participant has a copy of thedatabase, ensuring immutability

Consortium Blockchain:

Which blockchain?

A consortium blockchain is partly private and the distinction
between consortium and fully private systems can be confusing.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has succinctly defined thedifferences, saying, “So far there has been little emphasis on
the distinction between consortium blockchains and fully
private blockchains, although it is important: the former
provides a hybrid between the ‘low-trust’ provided by publicblockchains and the ‘single highly-trusted entity’ modelof private blockchains, whereas the latter can be moreaccurately described as a traditional centralized systemwith a degree of cryptographic auditability attached.”19

a i A consortium blockchain
There are three major blockchain models – public, private
and consortium (federated) – each of which has its own
advantages and liabilities. The public blockchain modelis the most widely known because its use is so prevalentin cryptocurrency applications like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Public blockchains are particularly attractive because they
offer the greatest degree of decentralization. However,public blockchains are expensive and their transaction speed
is are less than optimal. Private and consortium blockchain
platforms offer the same level of user control and privacy forusers as public blockchains. They do, however, cede some ofthe decentralization of public blockchains for higher efficiency,
faster speed and lower costs of operations.
The Arianee Foundation has opted for a consortium blockchain
platform and to help you understand the reasons for thatdecision, it is worth reviewing the three major models briefly.

­­­­­­­­ 19 -The Music Trades,” n.d.
–
https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/08/07/on-public-and-private-blockchains/

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In short, with a consortium blockchain model, rather than allowing anyone with an internet connection to participate in the verification oftransaction processes or vesting full control in only one company, some selected nodes are predetermined.
Accordingly, the consortium platform model offers many of the advantages associated with a private blockchain, including enhanced
efficiency and transaction privacy, but it doesn’t consolidate the power within a single company.
And it was these advantages, along with transaction speed and relative economy, that helped the Arianee founders determine that it
was the clear choice for Arianee.

Participants(nodes)PublicConsortium

PrivateNo centralised
management

Multipleorganizations

Singleorganization

Permissionless

Permissioned

Permissioned• Anonymous• Could bemalicious• Free entry forminers

Proof of Work, Proof of
stake, etc.

• Identified• Trusted• Miners selection
process• Identified• Trusted• Closed mining,
one central miner

Voting or multi-party
consensus algorithm

Voting or multi-party
consensus algorithm• Lighter• Faster• Lower energy
consumption• Enables finality• Lightest• Fastest• Lowest energy
consumption• Enables finality

Consensus
Mechanisms• Large energy
consumption• No finality• 51% attack

Transaction
Approval Freq.

Long

Short

Short

Bitcoin: 10 min or more

100x msec

100x msec

Conclusion:
Public and fully private blockchain technologies do not meet Arianee’s protocol needs and expectations. A consortium blockchain
is more specifically aligned with our needs, particularly because it offers many of the same advantages of a private blockchain, but
operates under the management of a group instead of a single entity. This is how we envisage the operation of the Arianee network.

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to manipulation20. In certain conditions, an ill-intentioned
operator could gain control of all the validator nodes andcompromise the blockchain.

b i A proof of authority consensus
As stated previously, we believe that a consortium blockchain
is the best compromise between technical performance anddecentralization. We still need to define how consortium nodes
are selected.

Selection by procedure is also called “Proof of Authority”. To
be effective, a Proof of Authority consensus system needs torespect these two conditions:Let’s first define the two kinds of nodes that are necessary tosustain such a blockchain infrastructure.

• Identity of the validating nodes
must be true and verified,

Validation nodes:• The procedure which candidates must follow
to become an authority node needs to be clear andthe same for all so that everybody can trust its integrity.

A validation node is a node which validates information, makes
sure it’s true, and passes the information along to other nodes,
thus enabling the transfer of value from location A to location B.
Anybody who wishes to run a validation node can run one; there
is no restriction.

The Arianee protocol is designed to respect these two conditions.
Candidates to become an authority node must go througha strict identity verification process. Verified brands andexperts are automatically eligible as they have alreadycompleted a strict identity confirmation process. It is
however, important for the integrity of the Arianee blockchainthat some nodes are completely independent from brands
and experts. Therefore any interested party can go througha similar identity process to become eligible to become
an authority node. There is no limit on the total number ofauthority nodes; therefore, any eligible node can become
an authority node if it notify the Network Onboarding Circle.
The Network Onboarding Circle will then move forward withthe onboarding process.

The absence of barriers to entry to run a validation node isessential as it ensures transparency and auditability of theblockchain. In extreme cases, it also means that the blockchain
can be forked to maintain the infrastructure.
Authority nodes:
Authority nodes are a subset of validation nodes because
every authority node is also a validation node. authority nodes
are needed to maintain the global Arianee infrastructure.
authority nodes are the only nodes capable of confirming
transactions and sealing blocks on the Arianee blockchain
and receive a remuneration for this work. Because of theircrucial role in a consortium blockchain and their number limited
by design, authority nodes need to be selected according
to a clear process. To make sure a malicious authority nodecannot inflict damage on the network, any authority nodecan sign, at most, one of a number of consecutive blocks.

At the launch of the Arianee blockchain, the Network
Onboarding Circle will deploy a number of pre-selectedindependent authority nodes, distributed around the world.
The importance of these pre-selected authority nodes willdiminish as additional authority nodes join the network.

Authority node selection method:

Member 1

Member 4

Member 2

Member 3

In consortium blockchains, methods to choose these nodes can
be classified in two main categories:• selection by vote,• selection by procedure.
Selection of authority nodes by vote is usually done by staking
tokens to select your “delegate”. In other words, every token
holder who wishes to participate in the selection of authority
nodes receives as many votes as tokens they are holding.
The nodes receiving the most votes during a given period are
responsible for sealing blocks during this period. While thissystem has its merits, it has been criticized for its vulnerability

SharedTransaction nodes

Mining nodes­­­­­­­­ 20 Governance, Part 2: Plutocracy Is Still Bad, Vitalik Buterin–
https://vitalik.ca/general/2018/03/28/plutocracy.html?utm_campaign=Market%20Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=61785122&_
hsenc=p2ANqtz-9r-aR7DD6kvBShjeV1dAKKJ2k8NZuPIVHgQiG1bCEBQ2WKlvRKGozZU8MqkMfI412MOPYtsraizF_qWinODygaFisiTw&_hsmi=61785122

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blockchain rather than having to hard fork, where a blockchain issplit into two separate versions.

Smart contracts are necessary for the deployment of the Arianee
Network. We have looked carefully at both Ethereum and Tezos
blockchain technology and would like to offer a summary to ourreaders.

While Arianee believes that, given the different purposes
they serve, multiple smart contract platforms will coexist
well into the future. For the time being, Arianee has opted for
the Ethereum platform because it is more mature in every
respect. We do, however, admire the ambition and energy
Tezos has demonstrated and we reserve the right to switch toits technology when it has demonstrated that it has sufficientmaturity to support the Arianee protocol.

For obvious reasons, no one can describe Ethereum better
than Ethereum can and for a detailed look at its blockchain
technology, Arianee would like to share an excerpt from theorganization’s website:“Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts:
applications that run exactly as programmed without any
possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party
interference. These apps run on a custom built blockchain,an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that canmove value around and represent the ownership of property.
This enables developers to create markets, store registries ofdebts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions
given long in the past and many other things that have not been
invented yet, all without a middle man or counterparty risk.
Ethereum was the first technology to implement the concept ofsmart contracts. The community is very strong and most of theactual projects work on the Ethereum blockchain.21”

CONCEPTETHEREUM

TEZOS

smart contract
platform

smart contracts platform+ built-in governance+ facilitates formal
verificationd i Smart contract standards
Smart contracts on the Arianee protocol respect the standard
established by the following ERC.
ERC-20 Token Standard (or ERC-777)
This standard provides basic functionality to transfer tokens,and also allows tokens to be approved so they can be spent byanother on-chain third party.
ERC-20 defines six differents functions for the benefit of othertokens within the Ethereum system. These are generally basic
functionality issues, including how tokens are transferredand how users can access data about a token. ERC-20 alsoprescribes two differents signals that each token takes on andwhich other tokens are attuned to.
Put together, this set of functions and signals ensures that
Ethereum tokens of different types will typically work in thesame way in any place within the Ethereum system. This meansthat almost all of the wallets that support the ether currency also
support ERC-20 compliant tokens.
https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-20.md

CONSENSUS

proof of work proofof stakedelegated proofof stake

This ERC will be used by the Arianee token utility. It forms thebasis of the Arianee network and economic model.

NATIVE
CURRENCY

ether (ETH)

tezzies (XTZ)

Every paid feature on the Arianee network requires Arianee token
utility, and will be divided among the Consortium, facilitators, andusers.

RELEASEDATE

July 2015

expected late 2017

presale in July 2014
raised $18M in bitcoinpresale in July 2017 raised$232M in bitcoin and
ether

RELEASEMETHOD

ERC-721: Non-fungible Token Standard
This standard allows for the implementation of a standard API
for non-fungible tokens (henceforth referred to as ‘‘NFTs’’) withinsmart contracts. This standard provides basic functionality to
track and transfer ownership of NFTs.
https://github.com/ethereum/eips/issues/721

Certificates are comparable to non-fungible tokens. ERC721 iscompletely related to this use case and the Arianee network willuse it to emit new certificates and let users transfer and prove
ownership.

Linda Xie published an excellent piece that we recommend
on medium.com, which provided a concise and accurate
introduction to Tezos22. Xie points out that Tezos, like Ethereum,is a a smart contracts platform but that it incorporates a process
for upgrading the protocol over time through an on-chain
governance system that allows for a smooth evolution of the

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ERC-725/735 : Identity & Claim Order

The addition of zk-SNARK technology into Ethereum is anotherfactor that draws us to this technology. Arianee will implement
zk-SNARKs as soon as it will be efficient to do so.

The following describes standard functions for a unique
identity for humans, groups, objects, and machines.
This identity can hold keys to sign actions (transactions,documents, logins, access, etc), and claims, which areattested from third parties (issuers) and self-attested, as well
as a proxy function to act directly on the blockchain.

g i Data storage
So far, to store all external data we have opted for IPFS
(https://ipfs.io) solution regarding media content storage,such as user images/photos and video information. IPFS
provides resilient access to data, independent of low latency orconnectivity to the backbone. IPFS and Blockchain are a perfectmatch. Large amounts of data can be addressed with IPFS, and
it is possible to place the immutable, permanent IPFS links into
a blockchain transaction. This timestamps and secures content,
without having to put the data on the chain itself. We are also
paying attention to the Ethereum roadmap with decentralized
storage project called Swarm. We will choose the best option
available at the time of deployment of the Arianee protocol.

We will use this standard to define people, companies, andothers entities to ensure liability over time.

e i ARIA: a utility token
The Arianee blockchain uses a token called ARIA. The ARIA isa token used by brands and third parties to pay for premiumfeatures that leverage the blockchain. This fits the definition of autility token as outlined by the growing body of blockchain token
guidelines being established around the world23.
Arianee’s fuel:h i Open source

The ARIA token is essential to sustaining a blockchain. ARIA
spent by brands on premium features will be split among
facilitators who help execute the transactions, the Arianee entity,
authority nodes and a reserve with a new vesting period. One
portion will be used to compensate authority nodes each period.
Another portion will be assigned to the Arianee fund for platform
maintenance and to seed fund promising third-party ecosystemprojects providing exceptional value to the Arianee platform.
The rest will go to the third party which facilitated the transaction.

Open source software development is essential to building
trust and safety into blockchain networks. Here’s why it mattersfrom a governance perspective for the Arianee project.
Arianee’s role is to define, build and maintain the Arianee
protocol. We want to build a decentralized network thatallows participants to trust each other, align their incentives,and punish fraud. It is developed in the open, free for theworld to use and modify – wholly independent of one or evena handful of corporate interests – and used by hundreds ofpassionate users.

The ARIA is also a solution to prevent communication spamand pollution of the blockchain with falsified certificates. It
guarantees - by its nature - spamless communication, and trustin the certification and expertise.

The Arianee protocol will be available for free use andmodification under a permissive copyright license, and the full
history of that development is visible within a public software
repository like Github. All code is released under the LGPL3, a copyleft license that requires all future derivative works
to be released under the same non-proprietary licensing.
If needed, developers will be able to freely fork the Arianee
Core Github repository to build a purpose-specific Arianeecompatible blockchain.

Adjustable fees for predictability:
We wish to ensure that paid feature costs are predictable andstable for companies using them. Because the ARIA/
USD exchange rate is free floating, the Arianee platform will
include a mechanism to adjust paid feature fees. Fees for paidfeatures will be regularly adjusted to maintain a stable cost in fiat
currency. The value of fees in ARIA will be adjusted based on theweighted current average ARIA market rate across exchanges.

f i Zero-knowledge proofs
Privacy and auditability are very important for Arianee. As you
may already be aware, the Ethereum Metropolis (Byzantium)
upgrade adds a new cryptographic tool (zk-SNARKs) that waspioneered by Zcash. The zk-SNARKs, meaning zero-knowledge
Succinct Non-interactive Argument of Knowledge, is a very
important new tool in the Ethereum box that we will be using.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­– 21 https://www.ethereum.org/­­­­­­­­ 22 https://medium.com/@linda.xie/a-beginners-guide-to-tezos–
c9618240183f­– 23 -We reference here the definition of a utility token as established by
the Swiss FINMA in Guidance 04/2017: “Utility tokens are tokens which areintended to provide access digitally to an application or service by means ofa blockchain-based infrastructure.”

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Technical
ArchitectureT

he technical architecture of the Arianee platform will be articulated as follows. The Arianee blockchain is a Proof of
Authority (POA) blockchain, Ethereum-based with a collection of smart contracts to define the backbone of our protocol.
A collection of proxy servers connected to the blockchain will be deployed that will enable the scaling of the platform in
read-only mode.
A similar process will be applied for storage nodes in order to store certificate data. The exact architecture will depend on the
distributed data storage solution chosen. IPFS and Swarm are the most likely solutions but the decision will depend on the maturityof each solution at time of deployment. End-user applications such as the owner app, the brand terminal or third-party ecosystemdeveloped apps will connect to the platform using web3js connector.

Overall Architecture

40

08

Technical
Architecture

Information hierarchy and data encryption
Information hierarchy and data encryption are key for a successful blockchain architecture. To store different kindsof information, Arianee will implement a payload format with security checks to validate origin. All users will have thechoice to encrypt this information to avoid storing any plain text.

HASH(): Cryptographic hash function SERIALIZE():
Serialization function{‘payload’: {pt : Product Token‘type’: ‘PRODUCT_TOKEN_V1’, ‘ean’: ‘. ..’ ,‘brand’: ‘. ..’ ,signature = HASH(SERIALIZE(pt.payload)) PUBHASH(pt)= HASH(SERIALIZE(pt))‘description’: ‘. ..’ ,‘material’: [ ‘. ..’ ,],‘size’: ‘. ..’ , ‘color’: ‘. ..’ , ‘photos’: [‘(uri_photo_1)’,... ],

PubKey officially identifying the brand (or a well-known
expert)‘issuer’: ‘. ..’ ,},Signature of the payload with the PrivKey associated tothe issuer (PubKey)‘sig’: { ‘v’: ‘. ..’ ,‘r’: ‘. ..’ ,‘s’: ‘. ..’ }}Chain of nested Private Property Titles rooted by a
ProductToken{‘payload’: {PubKey of the new owner‘type’: ‘PRIVATE_PROPERTY_TITLE_V1’,‘asset’: {...},

Owner’s pubkey‘beneficiary’: ‘. ..’(pubkeys are used only once)‘issuer’: ‘. ..’ ,Signature of the payload with the PrivKey associated tothe owner’s PubKey}, ‘sig’: {‘v’: ‘. ..’ , ‘r’: ‘. ..’ , ‘s’: ‘. ..’}}HASH() : Cryptographic hash function SERIALIZE():
Serialization function ppt : Private Property Title
signature = HASH(SERIALIZE(ppt.payload))
PUBHASH(ppt) = HASH(SERIALIZE(ppt))

41

08

Technical
Architecture‘payload’: {...,‘issuer’: ‘. ..’},‘sig’: {...}
Product token‘payload’: {‘type’: ‘. ..,‘asset’: { },‘issuer’: P b,‘beneficiary’: P u1

Brand transfers property
to User1‘payload’: {},‘type’: ‘. ..,‘sig’: {...}‘asset’: { },Property Title USER1‘issuer’: P u1,‘beneficiary’: P u2},
‘sig’: {...}

Pb: Brand’s PubKey
Pu1: User1’s PubKey

User1 transfers property
to User2

Property Title USER2

Pu2 User2’s PubKey{

Property Title‘payload’: {‘type’: ‘PROPERTY_TITLE_V1’,‘asset’: {‘payload’: {‘type’: ‘PROPERTY_TITLE_V1’,‘asset’: {‘payload’: {‘type’: ‘PRODUCT_TOKEN_V1’,‘ean’: ‘...’,...,‘pubkey’: Pb},‘signature’: ...
},‘from’: Pb,,‘to’: Pu1},
‘signature’: {...}},‘from’: Pu1,
‘to’: Pu2},
‘signature’: {...}

Transfer from User1 to User2

Transfer from Brand to User1• Users can audit the chain of ownership up to the root
(Product Token issued by the brand)
Brands’ public keys must be published and verifiable• Users’ privacy is protected by one-time-use public keys
(pseudonymous system)

}

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08

Technical
Architecture

Workflowsc i Smart-Asset creationfor existing items

a i Gas and Aria coordination

A user can transfer a certified Smart-Asset to another user’s
Vault. This transfer is recorded on the blockchain and the Gas
expended is taken out of the sender’s Gas allotment. To be
finalized, the transfer needs to be accepted by the receiver.

All operations on the blockchain require the use of Gas to efficiently allocate blockchain computation power. Gas is a necessary but costless unit complementary to ARIA. Only paidtransactions (authenticity certification and messaging) require ARIA in addition to Gas to be expended. While Aria canbe acquired on the Arianee platform or on exchanges, Gas
is distributed to verified brands, verified experts and owners
with at least one certified Smart-Asset at no cost according
to need. Each one of these users receives a Gas allotment
which can be replenished once depleted.

Arianee luxury B2B app
Put basic info
about items
already owned

Luxury items
owner/user

Arianee blockchain

Certifyauthenticity
with the physical item

Arianee luxury
onchain app

Create&stamp digital
certificate/transfer iton the User wallet/
local ether for Gas&Aria
for paid features

Luxury items
owner/userGd i A Smart-Asset transferfrom a userb i Smart-Asset creation for

A user can transfer a certified Smart-Asset to another user’s
Vault. This transfer is recorded on the blockchain and the Gas
expended is taken out of the sender’s Gas allotment. To be
finalized, the transfer needs to be accepted by the receiver.

new items

Verified brands can elect to register their products on the
Arianee blockchain before the sale to a customer. For each
new item, a Smart-Asset must be recorded to the Arianee
blockchain. When a verified brand adds a Smart-Asset thisway, it is automatically certified and registered in the brand’s
Vault. While the creation of the Smart-Asset only requires
Gas, the authenticity certification requires both Gas and Aria
to be expended.

User with
Smart-Asset

Arianee luxury
onchain app

At the time of purchase, the owner will transfer the Smart-Asset to their Vault by simply scanning with the owner’s app asingle-use QR code provided by the brand.
On demand Arianee faucet
sends local ether to a user walletwith at least one Smart-AssetG

43

A transfer transaction is executed.
The initial user can, because he received
local ether from the Arianee Faucet

New owner/
user

08

Technical
Architecturee i Token issuance
Arianee will operate with a token model ERC20/777 on the Arianee blockchain. The ARIA token is the token listed on cryptocurrency exchanges. Between the ICO and the release of the Arianee blockchain, tradeable AriaOption tokens will be released as an
ERC20 token on the Ethereum main network.
Once the Arianee blockchain is released, a double smart contract (one on the Ethereum main network and one on the Arianee
blockchain) will allow investors to convert their AriaOption tokens to Aria tokens on the Arianee blockchain.

Ethereum Main Network

Arianee ICO
Smart contract

Aria Tokens are released
to investors wallets

f i System overview
The Arianee blockchain is an Ethereum-based Proof of Authority (PoA) network. authority nodes are validated by the Arianee
Network Board. All generated local ether for Gas goes to Arianee’s faucet wallet. Authority nodes are paid in Aria from fees forpremium features. Validation nodes can sync the blockchain (exchanges, third party, etc.). ICO investors convert AriaOption to
Aria. Exchanges can connect to the Arianee blockchain to exchange and list Aria Tokens.

Arianee Network
Non mining
nodes

Arianee Wallet
faucet collecting
local Ether

POA blockchain basedon Ethereum code baseLocal Ether transferred
to Arianee Faucet

Arianeeconventer Smartcontracts (one way)

Aria Tokens are released to investors
wallets against AriaOption

Ethereum Main Network

44

09

Stakeholder incentives
and Governance

Stakeholder incentives

or build software and interfaces using the main Arianee
protocol. Enriched third party will always be free to build,
deploy and give or sell their applications to sot users andbrands using both free and paid features on the Arianee
platform.

Free to the owner:
The usage of the Arianee platform is completely free for an
owner. The Arianee Vault is the most convenient solution todigitize and share the history of an owner’s products. Owners
can register their products in a Smart-Asset on the owner’s
app for free. Once the Smart-Asset is recorded on the
Arianee blockchain, it is freely tradable between owners. Allsuch transactions are recorded on the blockchain and Gas
costs are covered by an allowance from the Arianee Faucet
Wallet.

Participants in the enriched third-party ecosystem are
remunerated thanks to the shared value smart contract.
Every ARIA collected is distributed between the miners,
the third party involved in facilitating the transaction and
the Arianee Fund.
The Arianee fund will finance innovative projects
leveraging the Arianee blockchain or updating it. Project
selection for financial support will be the responsibility of
the Executive Board.

Owners, like every other user, whether registered or not, canrun a validation node to verify the integrity of the blockchain.

In this way, we believe that we will encourage the rise ofa fully resilient ecosystem.

Brands:Verified brands use both free and paid features on
the Arianee Network. Paid features offer a truly innovative
service that allows brands to fight against counterfeiting andkeep a link open with the actual owner of a product much
more effectively. Paid features require ARIA. When they areused, utility tokens are split between Arianee, the facilitator,
and authority nodes. This redistribution model ensures thatall stakeholders in the Arianee platform are incentivized tocontribute. While verified brands have a special role on the
Arianee platform, they can also act as facilitators if they havethe ability to build software leveraging the Arianee network.

Arianee
Blockchain

Proxy
Servers

Expert third parties:
For certain industries, such as fine art, expert third partiesare required because there are no brands to certify theauthenticity. Moreover, in certain conditions brands do
not wish to take care of certifying the authenticity of theirproduct after purchase. In these cases, verified expert
third parties can be the sole sources capable of certifying
the authenticity of a product. This is why verified expert
third parties are necessary to the Arianee network andhave access to similar authentication certification andsmart messaging premium features paid for with ARIA.

Third Party
Apps

End-Users,
Companies

Expert third parties are incentivized to participate in
the Arianee platform as a it is a funnel for new clients inneed for authenticity certification. Moreover, expert third
parties can monetize their reach with product owners.

GovernanceBlockchain governance is a consequential factor that candetermine whether or not a blockchain is beneficial to the
public interest. Governance is a process. It involves players
who participate in that process to produce decisions that
affect the governed resources. These decisions can have alasting impact on many stakeholders.

Enriched third-party ecosystem:
Arianee’s potential can only be fully realized if a dedicatedand diverse ecosystem of developers and partners are
incentivized to build on the platform. Arianee will focus
on delivering its open source main protocol in a mannerthat will foster business and non-profit opportunities forfreelancers, companies, and NGOs. Arianee will provide
technical guidance, APIs, and middleware tools to create
smart contracts that will enhance the Arianee protocol

One of the core value propositions of Ethereum andBitcoin is that they are “unstoppable” by governments
and regulators. This has played a key role in the growth

45

09

Stakeholder incentives
and Governancestructure. It is in charge of allocating ICO funds andselecting the most qualified individuals, team ororganization to build and maintain the Arianee platform.
The Executive Board is also in charge of managing
the Arianee fund. The Arianee fund distributes grants
to promising projects developed by the third-party
ecosystem and to individuals or teams contributing to thedevelopment and maintenance of the Arianee platform.

of the crypto world in recent years. To achieve thisgoal, the concept of a fully-decentralized network isnecessary, which leads to a high level of complexity andrisk in terms of governance. This being said, by its natureand considering its features, Arianee does not have thesame constraints.
Governance principles:
Blockchain technology is hailed as a trustless, distributed
self-governance system. However, while the high degreeof decentralization that permissionless projects such as
Bitcoin or Ethereum provides great fairness, it also leads
to serious inefficiencies. Therefore, in order to improvethe efficiency of the project, Arianee wishes to incorporate
some concepts of centralized governance.

The Executive Board is composed of three Arianee teamrepresentatives, three advisors and the president of theProtocol Board, who will represent the voice of Arianee
stakeholders.

• Protocol Board
The Protocol Board defines policies and enacts decisions
pertaining to the development and maintenance of the
Arianee protocol. The Protocol Board’s mandate is toensure the independence of the network and shouldpreserve the balance of power between authority nodes.

Permissionless blockchain enables decentralizationand therefore censorship resistance. However thisdecentralization comes at the cost of efficiency and canlead to the stagnation of network development when thecommunity cannot decide on a path forward. The recent
split in the bitcoin core team around the question of block
size, which led to the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork is a perfect
example of such problems. Centralized organizations on
the other hand offer the clearest decision making system atthe expense of decentralization and censorship resistance,
which makes it unattractive for blockchain projects.

The Protocol Board is composed of the president of eachEnterprise Committee, three members of the Executive
Board and an elected representative of the Network
Onboarding Circle.

• Enterprise Committees
Enterprise Committees are the voice of the businesses
using the Arianee protocol. Each committee shallrepresent a particular business sector involved in the
Arianee ecosystem. Each Enterprise Committee shallsurface the needs of its particular users, both internaland external. Each committee shall elect a representative
who will participate to in meetings of the Protocol Board.

The Arianee governance aims to find an equilibrium
between the interests of individual owners, brands and thethird-party community. We are convinced that we can finda governance model that will sufficiently satisfy the stability
and predictability that large businesses seek and theprotections that individuals and the third-party community
demand. While governance based on direct voting or
staking is popular today, we have come to the conclusionthat the DAO failure or recent controversies around DPoS
show the limits of such systems. We therefore believethat a deliberative architecture will result in a more robust
governance system. In light of our previous experiences inblockchain projects, we aim to strike a balance between
representativity and efficiency. We believe that this balancecan be reached more easily with a transparent governanceled by councils, and clear and simple processes to join them.

• Network Onboarding Circle
The Network Onboarding Circle is in charge of assisting
brands, Experts and independent third parties who wish to run
an authority node and who have successfully gone throughthe verification process.
The Network Onboarding Circle is composed of Arianee’sTechnical lead, one Technical Advisor and three independent
authority nodes. They elect a representative of the Network
Onboarding Circle who will participate in the Protocol Board.

Governance architecture:• Verification Process

While the Proof of Authority protocol should be seen as
the machine-based consensus mechanism certifying the
integrity of the blockchain, the governance architecture
should be seen as the social consensus mechanism.

The verification process is a Know Your Business (KYB) process
through which each brand, expert, and independent authority
node operator has to go. Verified companies have access to
paid features and are eligible to run an authority node if theywish to. The verification process is designed by the Network
Onboarding Circle and approved by the Protocol Board.

The Arianee governance architecture should therefore
operate with the same principles of transparency andclarity which underlie our Proof of Authority protocol.

• The Executive Board
The Executive Board manages the resources of Arianee

46

10

ArianeeteamThe team is composed of entrepreneurs, investors andsoftware engineers who have worked, co-foundedand exited companies together in the past.

Emmanuelle Collet

Julien Romanetto

Marketing

Product

Emmanuelle is an experienced communication andmarketing professional with over 10 years of experience. Most
recently, she was in charge of the global media strategy for
the Swiss watch brand Omega. She earned her MBA from
Paris La Sorbonne

For 20 years Julien has been a successful entrepreneur andan investor with an eye for the technical side. With FrédéricMontagnon, he co-founded and exited Secret Media,
OverBlog, Teads and Nomao for a total value of more than
USD 400 million. Julien has been involved in cryptocurrencies,
mining and user cases for blockchain technology for the last
three years.

Alexandre Cognard

Christian Jorge

Technical

Operations

Alexandre started coding by himself in late 90s. He thengraduated from ESIEA with a masters in engineering andcompleted his education with an MBA. A serial entrepreneur,he started building companies when he was 18 years old
thanks to his powerful framework EZBO. His first company,
FDM, us still leader in shareholder relationship management
solution. Following two main service companies specializedin custom e-commerce, he co-founded Vestiaire Collective,
and worked as CTO for eight years. Vestiaire Collectiveis one of the world’s leaders in the second-hand luxury
marketplaces with €118m funding, close to €200m business,with a presence in Paris, NYC, London, Berlin, Milan andHong Kong.

Christian founded his first start-up Néocité, a city-guide, in1998 during his during his study of Economics at University.
He then founded a digital marketing web-agency, IDEO
Concept, which merged with Alexandre Cognard’s company
in 2003. Before co-founding Vestiaire Collective in 2009, hetook part in the creation of some e-commerce companies
as operational partner. Along with his role as comex chair at
Vestiaire Collective, Christian worked as CPO for four years
and VP Operations for another four years. He’s now a businessangel, advisor and mentor in the French Tech ecosystem(Numa, Ashoka).

47

10

Arianeeteam

Frederic Montagnon

Jean-Marc Bellaiche

Chairman, Board member

Business Development

An accomplished entrepreneur and investor with 20 years ofexperience, Frédéric has founded and exited 4 companies
for a total value of more than USD 400 million. He is ranked
as the 7th largest start-up investor in France, and has been
involved in the field of cryptocurrency as an investor since2013. He is a well-known blockchain influencer and hiscommentaries have been published multiple times.

Jean-Marc was previously Senior Vice President of Strategy
and Business development for Tiffany & Co. He joined Tiffany
in 2014 and brings with him over 20 years of experience in theluxury sector. Previously, he was Senior Partner at the Boston
Consulting Group, where he led the global Luxury, Fashion,
Beauty and Department Stores practice and implementedcompetitive business strategies for global clients in these
sectors. Jean-Marc has a degree in econometry engineeringfrom École Centrale Paris and an MBA from the global
business school INSEAD.

Luc Jodet

Gregory Pouy

Business Architecture

Brand Evangelist

Luc started his career as a Business Analyst in a Fortune 500
company. He then co-founded BUYECO, a Renewable Energy
Marketplace in Switzerland, which sources electricity for large
corporate customers. This is where he discovered blockchain
technology while working on energy traceability solutions.

Grégory is globally recognized speaker and marketing
consultant specialized in the beauty, fashion and luxury
industries. He also teaches digital marketing in major
European business schools such as HEC, Essec or Dauphine.

48

10

Arianeeteam

Julien Abriel

Fabrice Ezzine

Product manager

Lead back end

Julien has 10 years of experience in complex digital products
and technical team management. He honed his skills in awide range of organization from startups (Vestiaire Collective,
Better Collective, Onepark) to large corporations (Le Monde,
AFPA) and public institutions (the European Parliament,
Centre Pompidou). He has a passion for innovation and is a
performance focused Agile methods professional.

Passionate about the internet, Fabrice has been able todeepen this knowledge in fullstack development during his
12 years of experience with Cairn as lead developer and thenin Vestiaire collective as scrum master. During these years
he was able to manage development teams and teach them
new ways of working and more particularly on switching toagile mode. He then became a freelance and consultant
specializing in architecture and payment method

Stephen Ferron

Julien Sechaud

EditorLead tech Mobile

Stephen is an award-winning copywriter. He grew up
in Colorado but is now based in Switzerland, where
he has created and edited texts for global clients in a
number of industries. Stephen holds an MA’s in Mass
Communications (Leicester), and World Music Studies(Sheffield), and an MSt in Creative Writing (Cambridge).

Julien started his career as a Project Manager for major
telecommunication firms. His taste for design and IT madehim quickly a mobile enthusiast. Startup fan and early-stage
lover, he brings his expertise to mobile-centric businesses
for both technological and product challenges. His first
discovery of blockchain technology was through democratic
autonomous organization.

Kurban Atabinen
Lead front end
Multi-Skills Developer. Years of experience in web andmobile applications development. Creator of Backside
Development platform.

49

11

Arianeeroadmap50

12Arianeestructure
Origin of the nameIndependence

The legend of Arianee – Ariadne in English – has had countlessinterpretations in the more than 2000 years since it was firstrecorded. And while the details of the story vary dependingon the narrator, one part of it is consistent: with a thread ofglittering jewels, Ariadne helped the Athenian hero Theseus
escape the Labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur.

Arianee sustains, maintains, and upholds the reference
protocol for each party: the creation and managementof digital ownership for end users and the issuance ofcertificates of authenticity for property.
Arianee technology is based on a blockchain, which by its
nature guarantees transparency, security and data integrity.
Unlike centralized platforms, Arianee’s users, whether
individuals, brands, third parties or resellers, retain ownershipof their data. They are the only ones who control it and who
can decide how it is used.

It’s fitting that the heroine’s name survives in the expression“Ariadne’s thread”, which describes finding a solution toa problem through the exhaustive application of logic to
all possible options.
There could be no better name for a structure committed
to helping companies and individuals negotiate the internet– a labyrinth whose challenges far exceed those faced by
Theseus – than Arianee. And there could be no greater
privilege than to be your thread through this maze.

Arianee is a company that both serves and is governed byits users. Its structure guarantees its independence and its
durability.
Arianee aims to create an ecosystem around its protocol
by delivering a free tool, and by financially supporting those
who bring new customers and innovations.

The ancient Greek poet Ovid wrote in his epic poem
Metamorphosis: «The door [of the Labyrinth], so difficult,which none of those before could find again, by Ariadne’s
aid was found, the thread that traced the way rewound.”51

This document has been translated by professionals from its original English version

http://arianee.org - hello@arianee.org - https://t.me/arianeeproject