A global marketplace for the manufacturing industry

The platform indu4.0 was founded with the vision to better connect the manufacturing industry. In particular, the 3 founders from Switzerland wanted to enable a significant simplification of supply and demand in the form of a B2B marketplace. According to the indu4.0 founders, trade fairs, catalogs or even classic field service work have long since become obsolete in the industry. The thesis is that digital offers and developments could also be increasingly used by the manufacturing industry to make a significant step in the digital transformation.

Thanks to the indu4.0 platform, buyers can find the right suppliers for them and their case in a structured and, above all, time-saving manner. For service providers, the platform is also an ideal way to present their competencies and skills to the market in a simple, transparent and cost-effective way.

Specifically, it aims to solve some of the most pressing problems that the industry has been struggling with for years. With a new blockchain based approach as well as a practical industry-specific filtering system, indu4.0 promises to lead the manufacturing industry into the digital world.

On its website, indu4.0 provides detailed information about the project as well as its future plans.

New technologies to solve existing problems in the manufacturing industry

Solving real problems for the industry requires the necessary know-how, which the indu4.0 team definitely has, thanks to their long lasting working experience in the manufacturing industry. The Co-Founders have lofty goals and a clear roadmap of development steps to solve identified problems and provide customer-centric services.

indu4.0 has developed a platform that provides transparency and efficiency in finding new suppliers and potential customers. 

The following list of added values is what indu4.0 offers industrial customers in the near future:

• By participating in the platform economy, indu4.0 provides buyers and suppliers with fast and accurate results based on a sophisticated filtering system to find qualified partners.

• INDU - the project's own cryptocurrency - gives customers access to various services and makes payment transactions more secure. This was solved with a so-called ERC-20 token. More about this below.

• By actively using the platform, customers are rewarded with INDU tokens (loyalty program).

• By means of an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) solution a secure transfer and storage of documents is enabled, which at the same time provides a proof of ownership. An ERC-721 smart contract has been programmed for this purpose. 

• Virtual trade fairs in the Metaverse will make it possible to participate in events from anywhere and, for example, to attend presentations of new machines and products in a 3D showroom.

INDU Token - ERC-20 - nature and utility of this security token

ERC-20 is the main technical standard for smart contracts used to implement tokens in the Ethereum blockchain. ERC-20 tokens can be thought of as chips that grant their respective owners access to participate in a digital ecosystem like indu4.0. The INDU token is designed to give indu4.0 customers access to exclusive services (see previous section) and pay for them. More details and specifications of this ERC-20 smart contract can be found in our blogpost

NFT solution with ERC-721 - application and benefits

ERC-721 is a standard for NFTs. In other words, this type of token is unique and can have a different value than another token of the same smart contract. All NFTs have a uint256 variable called TokenId and for each ERC-721 contract, the pair of contact addresses and uint256 TokenId must be globally unique. This is exactly why this standard is optimal for the case of indu4.0, to use blockchain technology to protect copyrights of own drawings, plans and ideas. More details and specifications of this ERC-721 smart contract can be found on our blogpost: Industry 4.0: Smart Contracts for the Manufacturing Industry

Short interview with the founders of indu4.0 AG

What is the vision of indu4.0 AG?

With indu4.0 we aim to be the global tool for the process "supply and demand" in the industry with the latest technologies in Web3.0. 

How did you come up with this business idea? 

During our daily work in various industrial companies, we have dealt with the search for suitable suppliers or service seekers and have recognised many inefficiencies, problems and hurdles. New technologies and the associated new possibilities gave rise to the idea of founding a company that would solve precisely these problems with the help of the latest technologies and thus generate real added value in the context of the manufacturing industry.   

What industry problems are you solving now and in the future? 

Due to the high complexity, the industry's biggest challenge is to quickly and effectively find the right partner to manufacture specific parts. Due to the matchmaking of supply and demand, our marketplace indu4.0 solves this problem in a first step. In addition to the issue of data security and plagiarism, the metaverse is expected to significantly shape the industrial sector in the medium to long term. In this way, one of the most environmentally unfriendly industries will make a contribution to optimizing its ecological footprint through virtual offerings.

Have you already received positive or critical feedback from the market?

During our pilot phase, the direct customer feedback has been extremely positive. That makes us happy, of course. It also shows that we have based the development of our platform on real customer needs and see ourselves as problem solvers.

What opportunities are there to participate in indu4.0 if I like your idea and the planned solutions? 

Good point! In addition to the platform, we want to offer comprehensive opportunities to become part of our journey as well as to accompany the digitalization of the industry sector through the integration of blockchain technology as well as the introduction of a native token. For avid enthusiasts, there is the possibility to purchase our tokens via website. This allows every user to use our cases, such as IDS (indu data security) via NFT Security. In the future we will also launch referral programs where you can recommend our marketplace and receive tokens.