Nearly seven in ten people say they were fooled into buying at least one fake product online in the past year, according to new research from Michigan State University’s Center for Anti‑Counterfeiting and Product Protection. At the same time, McKinsey reports that around 88% of Gen Z consumers in the United States doubt brands’ environmental and social claims, even though many want to buy more responsibly. When you look at those two facts together, it becomes clear why brands and retailers are turning to something more concrete than marketing promises: shared, tamper‑resistant data on blockchain. And as more of that data moves on‑chain, everything from what you buy to how you move value, whether it is tapping a card or checking the bitcoin price usd, starts to sit on the same verifiable rails.
In this article, we’ll look at how that technology is already protecting everyday shopping in five very practical ways, from salad and baby formula to skincare, sneakers, and even the way money moves. You’ll see where it’s working today, which brands are involved, and how you can take advantage of it without needing to “be into crypto” at all.
From Farm To Phone In Seconds
Food is probably the most intuitive place to start. When there’s a recall, nobody wants to guess whether the lettuce in their fridge is safe. In a well‑known pilot with IBM, Walmart benchmarked how long it took to trace a pack of sliced mangoes in its U.S. stores back to the original farm using traditional records, then repeated the exercise using a blockchain system. The old method took almost a week of phone calls and emails; with blockchain, the answer appeared in about 2.2 seconds because each handoff was already recorded in a shared digital ledger.
That experiment has since grown into something much bigger. IBM’s Food Trust platform, which uses blockchain as its backbone, has been reported to involve over 100 organizations, millions of transactions, thousands of products and participation from the four largest U.S. food retailers. In 2023, Topco Associates, a cooperative whose 49 member companies operate more than 15,000 stores serving an estimated 65 million shoppers each week in North America, joined the network to improve traceability for private‑label and fresh foods. For you, that means more of the items in a typical supermarket run now have a detailed, time‑stamped history that can be checked in seconds during a safety incident.
Beauty Labels That Can Prove It
McKinsey’s work with fashion and beauty consumers shows that most shoppers say brand trust is one of the top reasons they buy, yet a large majority of Gen Z in particular is skeptical of sustainability messaging and unsure what genuinely makes a product ethical. That trust gap is pushing cosmetics companies to move beyond static ingredient lists toward verifiable product histories.
Groups like L’Oréal have invested in digital transparency tools that let you scan a QR code on the packaging to see more detail about ingredients, where the product was manufactured, and the quality checks it passed. Industry analyses describe how these systems can sit on top of blockchain or similar secure databases so that once a batch record is written, it’s extremely difficult to change it without leaving traces. In simple terms, it becomes a timestamped logbook that brands, regulators, and consumers can all refer to with more confidence than a marketing brochure.
A sign of where this is going came in early 2024, when Chanel and 14 other major cosmetics players formed the TRASCE alliance to map beauty supply chains “from origin to shelf” with a shared digital infrastructure that includes blockchain. The goal is to trace ingredients and components across multiple tiers of suppliers, while letting each company keep control of its own sensitive data. For you as a shopper, the upside is that a single scan could eventually open up a richer view of a product’s journey. Instead of only seeing “natural” or “responsibly sourced” on the label, you might see the actual path behind those claims, supported by data that regulators and independent experts can also review.
In that context, blockchain is not a marketing step. It’s the reliable record‑keeper behind the QR codes and transparency tools brands are starting to promote.
- It links ingredient batches to manufacturing sites and dates
- It records test results and certifications in a tamper‑resistant way
- It gives multiple partners in the supply chain a shared version of the truth
Once you understand that, the idea of scanning your skincare or sunscreen starts to feel less like a gimmick and more like a natural extension of reading the ingredients.
Sneakers, Stablecoins And Stopping Fakes
Counterfeits are another area where evidence beats intuition. A global survey from Michigan State University’s A‑CAPP center in 2023 found that roughly 74% of respondents had purchased counterfeit goods at some point, often in categories like clothing and shoes. In parallel, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reported that more than a third of sampled products from certain online marketplaces failed U.S. safety standards, with some containing hazardous levels of chemicals such as lead and cadmium. Put harshly, fake and non‑compliant products can reach your doorstep just as easily as legitimate ones.
Luxury and fashion brands have responded by giving products their own digital paperwork. The Aura Blockchain Consortium, created by LVMH, Prada Group and Cartier, runs a industry platform that assigns each item, such as a handbag or watch, a unique digital identity recorded on a blockchain. When you scan or check that identity, you can confirm the item’s origin, see a record of its ownership, and in some cases connect to services such as repairs or certified resale. Researchers who study these systems argue that persistent provenance records make it much harder for counterfeits to circulate undetected, especially in secondary markets where many buyers are most exposed.
Money itself is moving along similar rails. Binance Research reported that one U.S. dollar‑linked stablecoin, USDe, expanded its supply by about 43.5% in a single month this year, reaching around 12.2 billion dollars in circulation and roughly 4% of the stablecoin market, faster than earlier stablecoins reached a similar size. In the same research pack, analysts noted that decentralized lending protocols saw total value locked rise by about 72% that year, with the Aave platform holding just over half of that segment. These numbers show that a large share of financial activity is already happening directly on blockchains where every transfer is logged in a public or permissioned ledger that investigators and compliance teams can study for fraud patterns. As Binance puts it, “Despite advanced privacy tools, every crypto transaction leaves a trace — a crucial asset for modern law enforcement.”
As product histories and payment flows both move onto traceable rails, a natural question emerges: will you start to expect proof for both the things you buy and the way you pay for them, the same way you expect a receipt today?
Proof Into A Daily Habit
None of this demands that you become a technologist. What matters is that more of the products and services you use are gaining something they lacked before: a detailed, hard‑to‑tamper record of where they came from and how they reached you. Academic studies on blockchain in supply chains point out that when data is entered correctly and governance is sound, these systems can cut errors, reduce fraud and provide a sturdier base for both regulators and consumers to check claims. In other words, the technology is most powerful when it fades into the background and lets simple actions, like scanning a code, carry meaningful proof.
So the practical next step is modest but important. Start using the verification tools that are already available: QR codes on food and beauty products, authenticity checks on luxury items, and transaction histories in your payment apps when they offer them. Each time you do, you’re rewarding brands that back their promises with evidence. As more companies notice that behavior, they’ll have a stronger reason to invest in the same kind of transparent, verifiable systems. As Binance CMO Rachel Conlan explains, every step in this sense must be “designed to scale awareness, build trust, and transform curiosity into lasting confidence.”
If the ability to see behind the label fits into your day as easily as checking reviews, why settle for shopping on blind trust?
To read more content like this, explore The Brand Hopper
Subscribe to our newsletter
