Mercedes-Benz has become the first car maker to join the Aura Blockchain Consortium of luxury brands.
Other founding members include LVMH, Prada Group, and Cartier.
The Aura Blockchain Consortium (ABC) was established in April 2021 to address the challenge of communicating authenticity, responsible sourcing and sustainability in a secure digital format.
The non-profit association based in Switzerland says its purpose is to promote socially responsible, sustainable, and customer-centric business practices throughout the lifecycle of luxury products by leveraging blockchain and other technologies.
“By promoting the use of a single global blockchain solution open to luxury brands of all sectors worldwide, the platform provides consumers with transparency,” says the organisation.
In Association with
The group says its collaborative concept ‘by luxury brands for luxury brands’ provides Mercedes-Benz with ready-to-use, cutting-edge blockchain and NFT technology that will raise the customer experience and enhance the digital luxury industry.
The German manufacturer said access to ABC's technology will enable it to explore “new strategic dimensions of digital brand development”, such as creating its own original digital artworks as non-fungible tokens.
Aura Blockchain Consortium says its goal is to raise standards in relation to innovation, transparency and blockchain technology and increase customer trust in the brands’ sustainable practices and product sourcing.
The organisation explains that it is “pursuing a long-term strategy towards the metaverse”, and has accelerated its activities in the development of its technical roadmap to include various NFT solutions for luxury brands.
Creating its own unique digital art, with the option of dropping them as NFTs, is an area of particular interest to Mercedes-Benz Design, and opens the door to a completely new range of products, according to the company.
Gorden Wagener, chief design officer of Mercedes-Benz Group, commented: “As a design team we consistently strive to pair beauty with the extraordinary in all dimensions.
“Therefore we are pushing our digital luxury ambition with Crypto Art, as a new expression of our style and creativity.
“We use digital art to create desire in-car and beyond. Incorporating it into the UI/UX is one future opportunity to differentiate the Mercedes-Benz luxury experience through the joy of the unexpected.
“It offers exciting potential for our design approach to exceed customer expectations with extraordinary and surprising elements – we call it the X-Factor.”
Daniela Ott, secretary general of ABC, stated: “The Mercedes-Benz name has been at the forefront of luxury innovation throughout its illustrious history.
“We are certain that the team of Mercedes-Benz will make an enormous contribution to our association and the development of a uniquely advanced technology through the significant opportunities offered by our solutions in relation to our activities related to upstream and downstream solutions, as well as to the ones related to NFTs.”
