Japanese tech conglomerate Hitachi and the telecommunications company KDDI is testing blockchain system for retail payments using the fingerprint of the buyer.
A group of employees of partner companies experimenting with the system of payment by coupons KDDI in one of the shops of the mobile operator in Tokyo and in neighboring doughnut shop.
Built on the platform of Hyperledger Fabric blockchain Hitachi system integrated with a biometric control technology, also developed by the company, and the existing coupon system KDDI. The solution should provide for the buyers the possibility of payment coupons via a distributed network that uses fingerprints as a validator of the transaction.
As explained in Hitachi, to participate in the system, a customer registers a coupon account and biometric information, which is encoded into a string of encrypted data and stored in the blockchain.
To carry out the calculation in a retail store that accepts coupons and is a node on the blockchain network, the identity of the buyer is verified with a fingerprint. The request is sent to the network, which authorises the transaction. The blockchain ensures the protection of information, its secure storage and instant updates.
“As a result, users can be authenticated, showing the finger to the infrastructure of discernment, so there is no need to present the coupon at the store, and it can be used even without a smartphone,” the company said.
This is not the first project of Hitachi in the field of blockchain technology — last year, together with Mizuho Financial Group, the development platform for supply chain management on the basis of Hyperledger Fabric.
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