The future is now: The role of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in the tyre business

Tyres have always been a highly technological product, but the influence of technology in the distribution and retail parts of the business hasn’t always moved at the same pace. Recent years, however, have seen the role of Internet and e-commerce take-off. That progress was compounded during the last couple of years of pandemic-related lockdowns. Now, as workers at one of the UK’s leading tyre retail chains recently told us, online orders and bookings account for the lion’s share of business. Indeed, those particular staff members reported that online orders make up as much as 90 per cent of the business they deal with each working day. With that in mind, in October’s magazine, Tyres & Accessories takes a closer look at the Digital Tyre Business, which for the purposes of that feature includes the social media, online branding, e-commerce, e-tail and stock management parts of the tyre business.

On 1 September 2022, the global crypto currency market was valued at a trillion dollars, but that figure actually peaked at $2.8 trillion in November 2021. And therefore, whichever way you look at it, cryptocurrency is now a huge economic entity in its own right. With roughly 38 and 18 per cent market share respectively, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two largest out there. Digital currencies bring with them two main features that suggest they are the future: Firstly, because they work on highly encrypted blockchain networks outside the established financial system, they offer the potential for greater efficiency and securing; and secondly, they operate as decentralised entities, taking governments and state banks out of the equation and empowering businesses and individuals with the margins that were only previously available to banks.

That’s where the tyre industry comes in. Crypto currency technology offers the global tyre manufacturing, distribution and retail busineses the opportunity to uses its own power more effectively in order to meet its economic and sustainability goals. And that’s why we took a look at how crypto currencies are already being used in tyre industry and how they could be used in the future, examining a number of real-life crypto projects along the way.

For more relating to the online tyre business, look out for the Digital Tyre Business feature in the October 2022 edition Tyres & Accessories magazine. Not a subscriber? No problem, click here to become one.