Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
October 29, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- On Sunday, something
akin to a unique use case for the Blockchain came to
light.
Even so, to begin to understand it, it is first necessary to
comprehend some of the economics behind Crypto tokens and what are
being called “Token ecosystems.” In short, tokens are what
incentivize a user to stay on these ecosystems and keep using the
products that are tied to them.
Sunday’s announcement from SC Johnson, the American cleaning
supplies giant, revealed the possibility of incentivizing behavior
outside of the direct product ecosystem. In this that behavior is
recycling plastic products, starting in a group of recycling
locations in Indonesia, according to Cointelegraph. In explaining
why they chose this location to begin their unique Blockchain
endeavor in connection with a company called Plastic Bank, SC
Johnson reportedly cited data that indicates that 55% of the
plastic trash that is in our oceans comes from only China,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. Inside of this
discussion, therefore, they also suggested that these countries
could stand to have better recycling practices to avoid having this
responsibility.
The general idea behind all of this is that SC Johnson, with the
help of Plastic Bank, will release a Blockchain product that gives
tokens to local people in the countries where it is operational,
when these people prove that they have recycled plastic items. If
you are wondering how this will be done, it all starts with the
fact that the two companies are opening dedicated recycling centers
for this specific project, the first of which is in
Bali.
People who bring plastic items to these centers, receive some sort
of equivalent number of digital tokens in return, which SC Johnson
claims can be exchanged for what they call “needed goods and
services.” In explaining this further, the same company release
mentioned above also notes that each center will be able to take in
100 metric tons of plastic waste each year.
Above all, SC Johnson and Plastic Bank actually envision their
dedicated token having enough utility and value to elevate people
out of poverty, beginning in Indonesia. If you are wondering where
this utility as well as this overall value will come from, that
part depends on Plastic Bank. At its heart, Plastic Bank is a firm
that takes in plastic and gives fiat or Cryptocurrencies back to
customers, in return.
With this in mind, it is logical to wonder what SC Johnson’s place
in all of this truly is, since Plastic Bank will seemingly be using
its own Blockchain for this project. Judging by the evidence at
hand, for now, the answer lies in the money. SC Johnson is the key
backer and Plastic Bank is the technology provider.
Furthermore, it would be amiss to discount the fact that SC Johnson
is cleaning up their company image with all of this. They alone
produce a large amount of the world’s plastic, simply due to their
relative monopoly on the cleaning supplies market, to the tune of
$10.3 billion in revenue in 2017.
In the end, we are left with the question that almost every
Blockchain company is trying to answer now. How do we really
incentivize the average person in our target market to use our
product? In the case of what we can call Plastic Coin, any success
that it will have, will assuredly depend on Plastic Bank proving to
local people that they can actually provide items of value in
return for recycling efforts.
By: BGN Editorial Staff