💼Business model

What makes dVIN unique

A doorway to exclusivity

Back in the early 90s, David Garret, CEO at dVIN Labs, would collect all his manually printed boarding passes and post them to the airlines. He would go through all this trouble to be able to access the benefits frequent-flyer programs would offer.

Air miles programs are extremely successful mainly because they are able to create a sense of exclusivity by offering tiered status levels, unique experiences, priority services, lounge access, and exclusive rewards. These benefits are designed to appeal to frequent travelers who value both the tangible and intangible aspects of exclusivity, such as convenience, comfort, and status.

Exclusivity, by its very nature, creates a sense of rarity and desirability, making luxury and investment-grade wine particularly appealing to those looking for more than just financial returns.

Through dVIN this sense of exclusivity can be achieved in two ways. Firstly, by making it possible to access luxury and investment-grade wines on-chain, which, as an alternative asset class, offers a combination of financial, social, and emotional benefits.

Secondly, this exclusivity can be achieved by bridging the gap that exists between winemakers and consumers simply by enabling a system that rewards customer loyalty, similar to how frequent-flyer programs operate.

Innovation

Digital Corks

Using the dVIN protocol, every bottle of wine has a unique digital twin (“Digital Cork”). Digital Corks serve as a deed of ownership for a wine bottle and are minted on a 1:1 basis. They are connected to the wine bottle through a unique identifier and contain all of the details for the specific bottle, including technical information for the wine, winemaker, as well its chain-of-custody and provenance data. The Digital Cork also includes a creative element that the winemaker can use for brand storytelling.

Virality through Tasting Tokens

The second element of innovation is that both $VIN and the dVIN protocol are inherently viral. When a physical bottle is opened, the owner of that bottle is incentivized to “open” the Digital Cork as well, which burns (destroys) that token and mints (creates) a “soulbound token”, which is called a Tasting Token. These Tasting Tokens cannot be sold or traded (i.e. they are non-transferable tokens), and no wallet can hold more than one Tasting Token from each bottle.

Accordingly, as every Digital Cork includes a $VIN allocation (which is proportional to the recommended market price of the bottle), consumers are incentivized to “burn” that digital twin to earn status, rewards and $VIN in exchange for their data. As a result of sharing being encouraged, this viral growth model is quite unique. Consumers can only claim the full $VIN allocation on the bottle by sharing Tasting Tokens with friends.

Essentially, the dVIIN protocol is designed to reward consumers to recruit and onboard new users. This results in an inherently viral system: sharing wine and sharing Tasting Tokens is part of the dVIN Ethos; it’s social, it’s cultural, it’s traditional and, for that reason, has the potential to become the most viral token in existence.

Tracking the Supply Chain: From Grape to Glass

Once adoption of $VIN has reached a critical mass among winemakers and wine lovers, dVIN protocol will be positioned to revolutionize the industry by introducing unprecedented efficiencies and transparency in the supply chain, ultimately leading to greater profits for winemakers.

On one hand, better supply chain management will be achieved through smart contracts, automating and optimizing processes like payment terms, cross-border settlements, and will help ameliorate currency fluctuations, which streamlines operations and reduces administrative overhead and runaway bank and transaction fees.

On the other hand, through Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), it’s possible to design anti-fraud and counterfeit solutions. By tokenizing each bottle of wine, $VIN allows for a meticulous tracking system from grape to glass, ensuring the authenticity of each product. This tokenization disincentivizes counterfeiting and preserves the brand equity of luxury winemakers.

Creating a comprehensive global supply chain coverage is feasible given the relatively contained scope of luxury wine distribution. The incentive structure designed around $VIN payments for network participation could rapidly encourage widespread adoption, offering precise chain-of-custody tracking, enhanced anti-fraud measures, and reliable provenance verification for each bottle.

Hence, the third main element of innovation involves tracking the entire supply chain from grape to glass and increasing its operational efficiency and environmental sustainability.