Major Japanese Gift Card Exchange Platform to Strengthen Business with Blockchain Technology

Amaten, the biggest gift card trading platform in Japan, has just announced its next big move. According to an official statement, Amaten will be joining hands with a Singaporean cloud computing firm, Aelf, to extend and improve its operations using blockchain technology.

Using blockchain, Amaten hopes to completely advance its core business system by changing the way the gift cards on its platform are traded and exchanged. At the moment, gift cards are exchanged either through unique codes transferred via email or through the use of physical cards. The problem with this method is that for the physical cards, the process involved with manufacturing, circulation and follow ups, is a little too cumbersome. For the digital codes, proper authorization is a problem, making it somewhat susceptible to illegal activity from cybercriminals. When blockchain is fully adopted, the entire process will be done using digital assets that can be easily verified on the blockchain. This way, there is a lot more transparency, easier tracking of all activity and also a considerably reduced vulnerability to fraudulent attacks.

According to Amaten chairman, Tom Kanazawa:

“I believe that the gift card industry can be a perfect use case for blockchain. The two are a completely natural fit. We have chosen to partner with the best blockchain technology providers in the space, Aelf, because they offer the scalability, dedicated sidechains and smart contract modules that we very much need to build our service rapidly and most cost effectively.”

Last year, Amaten successfully hit $110 million in revenue. As part of a $340 billion global gift card industry, Amatem has now joined the large and increasing  number of traditional firms like Walmart, who are looking to use blockchain solutions for their respective businesses.

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