As old as the world itself, wine has been an important cultural experience throughout human history – from worshiping the deities of wine in antiquity to what is now a multi-billion market. In 2019, the global wine market size was 364.25 billion, and it is predicted to reach 444.93 billion by 2027.
Apart from being a trophy for the collector’s community, fine wine is also an excellent alternative investment option. It shows impressively stable prices and is less volatile than other assets.
However, investment in wine and trade is still being treated cautiously by investors, as there are some obstacles; proving the provenance of the wine, transportation, storage, and high fees all make wine trade a challenge.
As the crypto era has already dawned on the art world with the revolutionary non-fungible token (NFT) technology, the question arises – what can it offer the ancient wine industry? Could it be the answer to modernizing wine trading?
The Archaic Industry Goes Tech
Tommy Nordam Jensen, CEO & Co-founder at WiV Technology, in an interview with DailyCoin, acknowledges the outstanding performance of wine in the investment environment.
"Wine is a great asset to get in terms of increasing price over time. Wine as an asset is one of the best-performing alternative assets. Wine outperformed stock markets, real estate, classic art and so on, so it has around 240% growth over ten-year periods," mentions Jensen.
Given the wine industry’s long history, digitization processes are coming to the market slowly. According to Jensen, only 5% of all wine is traded online.
"The industry itself is very old. It's been going for hundreds of years and so, trading and many processes are the same today as they were 300 years ago, it hasn't changed a lot," notes Jensen in an interview.
WiV Technology is currently on a mission to introduce crypto to the world of wine. The company partners with wine producers, distributors, and merchants worldwide to bridge the gap between archaic and new markets.
On the blockchain-based WiV platform, each bottle or case of wine is associated with a unique non-fungible WiV Token, just like each bottle of wine. These tokens are quickly and transparently tradable in NFT marketplaces. Jensen stated that
"We strongly believe in it, and we're building something unique in terms of the approach there and also the whole kind of utility of the wine. Decentraland, Cryptobox, or the Sandbox are the future in terms of digitizing real-world assets, like wine, and you need to play for physical wine to be presented, sold, and displayed in the metaverse.”
Instant Proof of Wine Provenance
One of the most important aspects of investment wine is its provenance and a record of how it’s been stored, which defines its value.
Approval of the wine’s origin comes with a massive load of paperwork that needs to be checked manually at every step of the process which slows up the trading potential.
Block-chain technology and tokens are excellent solutions to keep track of wine ownership. Decentralized structures make it virtually impossible to claim ownership of a tokenized asset fraudulently.
The blockchain contains information about the wine, which is stored and verified in small parcels worldwide. If any of these small parcels are changed, it is evident on the chain, where information doesn’t fit, and the changes are rejected.
It means that buyers and sellers can be confident that their investment is authentic and protected from fraud. By withdrawing paper-based documentation, transactions can be completed almost instantaneously.
Problems of Wine Transportation and Storage Solved
Another consideration for wine investors is the logistics and storage of their collection. NFT solutions for the wine trade are removing this obstacle to make the processes of wine trade faster and more progressive.
Investors no longer need to worry about the transport or specific storage conditions for their wine. Instead, they can hold a token that matches a bottle or crate of wine and guarantees authentication of their wine collection.
When wine is resold, only the NFT gets moved. Holding digital wine assets is not only a great way to guarantee provenance, but it reduces the risk inherent in collecting wine. There is a direct correlation between the number of times a wine bottle is moved and its potential damage. Several minutes in a hot place can have severe consequences to the value of the wine.
Cheaper and Faster Trading
The WiV platform allows trading ownership of wine assets faster and at a lower price than has been possible in the traditional market.
Blockchain technology introduces changes in the way the trading process is managed. Blockchain doesn’t have a central authority that needs to maintain its integrity, reducing the need for brokers and their associated fees. Therefore at the end of the day, investors have significantly less expenses.
These conditions are necessary for the growth of a far more liquid market than in the past. Tokenization is attracting a new generation of wine investors who want to add fine wine to their portfolio as a liquid asset.
Investing in wine via the WiV platform offers the best of both worlds: the efficiency, transparency, and speed of a digital market, with the history and establishment of a physical product.
On The Flipside
- The main challenge that WiV faces is the archaic market, which might not be ready to go digital, as a typical wine investor may not be equipped to navigate a digital world.
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