THE PROBLEM
Last year, Sandra aged 25 bought some cosmetic products from a reputable Brand. The total cost was about $125. After using the product for about 2 days, her face started reacting to that product. By the end of the week she was admitted to the hospital. She blamed the Brand and they denied. On deeper investigation the product was found out to be fake but the damage had already been done to the brand's reputation and to sandra's face. The brand had to part with $800,000 in compensation.
Businesses, Enterprises and Brands that sell products to their clientele like beauty products, cosmetics, high-end pharmaceuticals, fashion apparel and accessories etc have always struggled to maintain the reputation of their brand due to product plaigarism i.e Fake products and also legal issues and settlement cases they've had to suffer due to these issues. They've lost customers/clients because there's lack of trust in the Brand's authenticity. Health wise, customers (especially in the beauty industry )have suffered. Most brands lose millions yearly in revenue due to the existence of fake products. Bad actors have gotten smarter and ruthless at their craft.

THE SOLUTION - how people can use it.
Trustscan is the answer to product plaigarism(fake products). It enables customers and clients verify the authenticity of their products by scanning before purchase using NFC tags Onchain.
This solves a plethora of problems for the Brands like ;

• prevents loss in revenue for them. (African brands lose $3B yearly due to counterfeiting)
• Upholds customer/client trust in the brand which is very important
• The health and well-being of their clients is preserved (in beauty and pharmaceutical products).
  Trustscan leverages the immutability of blockchain tech. When the customers or clients tap(scan) the product through the NFC chip, it prompts up the product details and proof of verification on the user's screen.

USERS
It is built for both the brands and clients.
like:

• Fashion Brands
• Beauty brands
• cosmetic Brands
• Luxury Beverages and spirits
  -High end pharmaceuticals and many more.
  The clients of these brands by using Trustscan, can easily verify the authenticity of products produced by these brands with the tap of their mobile phone.

From the non technical and business aspect the challenges was RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH!
What we were trying to build was a whole new thing onchain.
We had to check the feasibility, product market fit and most importantly the technology.
NFC technology is a new thing with respect to blockchain and also web 2 .We as a team were able to put heads together to overcome every struggle we encountered and still encounter because we're still building and refining

https://github.com/anie308/trustscan

https://trustscan.pxxl.click

*Trustscan digitizes physical trust using NFC secured Blockchain anchored that lets customers(consumers) instantly verify Authenticity, Trace inception, and Access brand experiences with a single tap.
*
Core value:
The majority, if not all anti-counterfeit systems in Africa are reliant on QR codes and scratch labels, which can easily be cloned or copied. Trustcan replaces that huge problem with encrypted NFC tags(NTAG424-based). With the NTAG424; we can generate dynamic, one-time authentication. Each tag is cryptographically signed, and every scan writes to the blockchain ledger which is immutable.
This creates a permanent trail of ownership and movement.

For the Brand, it ensures:

1. Zero Clone authenticity, as every scan generates a new hash that writes to the ledger, so cloning is practically impossible.
2. Consumer engagement Layer.
3. Data Intelligence and Insights.

Alpha validation:
From research, one tap experience was smoother and more elegant than other conventional methods.

Target Customers:
Our target market is Africa. We are targeting emerging Brands in luxury, beauty, cosmetics, high-value pharmaceuticals, and premium goods brands that struggle with counterfeits and want to protect Brand equity.

Ideal customers are:

1. luxury fashion and accessories - clothing, sneakers, handbags, jewelry, etc.
2. Beauty and Cosmetics - makeup, serum, oils, perfumes, and skincare.
3. luxury beverages and spirits (gins, whiskey, and wines)
4. High-value pharmaceuticals

Our customer Validation:
Our USP is basically what validated our customer choice. We discovered that there were no secure and reliable methods to verify a product's authenticity in these markets without duplication. Brands lose about $85B yearly in Africa due to counterfeits, even with the present anti-counterfeiting systems available(ussd codes, QR codes, serial numbers).

1.Chekkit(Nigeria) - chekkitapp.com:
They use Qr and numeric codes for verification focusing mainly on pharmaceuticals. They also use blokchain for supply chain traceablity.
Limitation: Qr and numeric codes can easily be cloned
Trustscan: uses encrypted NFC tags(NTAG424) with dynamic authentication; basically impossible to clone, easy verification with a tap.

2. M Pedigree(Ghana) - mpedigree.com:
   Mobile Authentication using scatch labels and sms verification.
   Limitation: scratch can be duplicated, with this infrastructure there's limited analytics for the Brand. There's no blockchain usage therefore information can easily be duplicated.
   Trustscan: Verification is instant with detailed analytics on Blockchain

3. M Pharma(Ghana/Pan-Africa) - mpharma.com :
   Pharmaceutical supply chain managemnet and tracking
   Limitation: B2B health supply chain focus not consumer facing or multisector
   Trustscan: We complement that with brand consumer authentication across categories.

4. Sporoxil(Nigeria/US) -sporoxil.com:
   Uses scratch labels with sms verification
   Limitation: easy to fake, requires usertyping which may be cumbersome for the consumers,verification method can't be re-used, outdated UX.
   Trustscan: Reuseable verification, replaces sms with NFC tap verification and smart UX for mordern consumers.