EcoVault Chain : Connecting Commerce with Sustainability

[parthasaini]

Project Name: Tron Vault (Blockchain-Powered Security, Eco-Friendly Deliveries)
Project Track: Integration
Team Name: Team Invincible
Team Member(s): @parthasaini

DevPost Project Link: EcoVault Chain | Devpost
Demo: Project Demo| Youtube Video

Project Goal:

The EcoVault Chain project is designed to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in modern e-commerce logistics: balancing convenience with sustainability. The goal is to create a revolutionary delivery system that minimizes environmental harm while enhancing the efficiency and security of package deliveries.

The central aim is twofold:

1. Streamline the Delivery Process: By integrating both software and hardware, EcoVault Chain automates and optimizes the entire shopping experience, from product discovery to delivery. This ensures buyers and sellers enjoy a smooth and efficient transaction process.
2. Reduce the Environmental Impact: By utilizing eco-friendly vaults placed strategically in local areas, the project drastically cuts down on unnecessary delivery trips, thus reducing fuel consumption and the carbon footprint of traditional last-mile deliveries.

The long-term goal is to redefine how deliveries are handled in a world increasingly concerned about environmental sustainability. By leveraging cutting-edge blockchain technology, IoT-integrated vaults, and an innovative software platform, the project sets new standards for how secure, sustainable, and efficient deliveries should be made.

Project Value:

The EcoVault Chain provides substantial value by addressing two core issues: environmental sustainability and delivery security.

• Environmental Value:

  • In today’s world, where climate change is a major concern, the delivery industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions due to the transportation involved. EcoVault Chain significantly reduces these emissions by cutting down the number of delivery trips required. By using localized vaults, the project minimizes the distance traveled by delivery vehicles, leading to a substantial reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
  • The project not only improves the efficiency of the delivery system but also contributes to a greener future, as the vaults are designed with sustainable materials and energy-efficient technologies.

• Value for Consumers:

  • Security and Convenience: Consumers no longer have to worry about missed deliveries or package theft. The smart vaults act as secure storage units where customers can retrieve their packages whenever it’s convenient for them. This eliminates the anxiety around delivery windows or the risk of leaving packages unattended at doorsteps.
  • Real-Time Updates: The IoT integration ensures that consumers are always aware of their package’s status, giving them peace of mind and greater control over their deliveries.

• Value for Sellers:

  • Operational Efficiency: For sellers, EcoVault Chain provides real-time data on customer purchases and delivery statuses, helping them optimize inventory management and forecast demand. Sellers can focus more on customer satisfaction, knowing that deliveries are securely handled and environmentally responsible.
  • Sustainability as a Selling Point: Businesses adopting EcoVault Chain can promote their commitment to sustainability, which is a major factor for today’s environmentally conscious consumers. By offering a green delivery solution, businesses can differentiate themselves in the market and attract eco-conscious customers.

Project Info:

EcoVault Chain is a comprehensive solution designed to address every stage of the delivery process. The project integrates advanced software with IoT-enabled hardware to create a seamless, eco-friendly, and secure delivery system. Here’s how the system works:

• Software Component:
  • Customer-Facing Interface: Customers interact with the system through a browser extension and web application that allows them to browse products, place orders, and choose a vault for delivery. The extension provides a seamless experience, integrating with their daily browsing habits to make shopping convenient and fast.
  • Seller Dashboard: On the other side, businesses have access to a robust seller dashboard, where they can manage product listings, view sales data, track shipments, and analyze customer behaviors in real time. The dashboard is designed to provide a bird’s-eye view of their logistics, making operations smoother and more efficient.
• Hardware Component:
  • Smart Vaults: The smart vaults are strategically placed in accessible locations within communities. Each vault is equipped with IoT sensors that track the delivery and retrieval of packages in real-time. Vaults are secure, tamper-resistant, and use blockchain-based authentication, ensuring that only the authorized recipient can access the package.
  • Blockchain Integration: Every delivery is secured through the TRON blockchain, ensuring that data related to package tracking and delivery is stored immutably. This guarantees transparency and traceability, giving both consumers and sellers peace of mind.
• Environmental Focus:
  • Minimizing Carbon Footprint: EcoVault Chain dramatically reduces the environmental impact of package deliveries by reducing the distance delivery vehicles need to travel. By having a network of vaults, the system can serve more customers with fewer trips, reducing emissions and improving delivery efficiency.

Project Website: Website for sellers can be found here: EcoVault Chain | Home, where brands can connect their wallets with their account and create their product inventory. The extension for the buyers is sent for review, and will be published ASAP.

Project Test Instructions: As a brand, you have to first connect your wallet with the website, and then provide details like: address, brand type, name, description. After that you have to verify the email. Then you can add products into the inventory and even see the stats page needed to transfer local shops to brands.

Project Details:

EcoVault Chain offers a complete, end-to-end solution for the entire shopping and delivery cycle. Here’s a detailed look at how each component works:

• Browsing & Ordering:
  • Customer Experience: The user-friendly interface makes browsing products and placing orders simple. Through the browser extension, customers can easily add items to their cart, select delivery options, and complete the checkout process without leaving their daily browsing routine. Once an order is placed, customers can choose a local vault for delivery, ensuring that their package is securely stored.
  • Seamless Notifications: As soon as an order is processed, customers receive real-time notifications on the status of their delivery, allowing them to track the progress from shipment to vault arrival.
• Vault Delivery & Pickup:
  • Smart Vault Integration: Once the package reaches a vault, it is securely stored until the customer is ready to pick it up. The vaults are equipped with IoT sensors and provide real-time updates to both customers and sellers. Customers can use a secure, blockchain-authenticated code or one-time password to access their package, ensuring that no unauthorized person can retrieve it.
  • Environmentally Conscious Delivery: The use of local vaults minimizes the need for multiple delivery trips, reducing fuel consumption and the carbon footprint associated with e-commerce logistics.
• Secure Transactions & Data:
  • Blockchain Security: The TRON blockchain ensures that all transactions are secure and traceable. From the moment a customer places an order to the time the package is retrieved from the vault, every step is securely logged on the blockchain, providing an immutable record of the transaction.
  • Data Privacy: Customer information, delivery data, and payment transactions are all protected by advanced encryption technologies, ensuring that user privacy is always maintained.
• Sustainability & Innovation:
  • Eco-Friendly Operations: By reducing the need for door-to-door deliveries and consolidating packages into vaults, EcoVault Chain cuts emissions and promotes eco-friendly logistics. The project’s use of smart technology and sustainable materials aligns with the global push toward greener, more responsible business practices.

Project Milestones:

As this project largely relies on TRON blockchain, Google maps and provides different services like browser extension, website, a whatsapp bot. So, this project rightly fits into the integration track.

[parthasaini]

I would love to know people’s opinions

Will be adding all of the required stuff in the next couple of days.

@SimbadMarino here is my submission for this event

[ines_valerie]

Welcome to the Hackathon of season 7, nice project that you have here, please tell me what is going to happen if all the vault in an area are all occupied, thank you

[parthasaini]

Thanks for your words, @ines_valerie.

In general, each physical vault location will be situated around 5-7 km apart, and each location will have multiple vaults of varying sizes to cater to different package needs. Typically, 8-10 vaults should be sufficient to serve the package delivery requirements for a 5-7 km radius over a couple of days.

To ensure vaults are vacated promptly and improve availability, here’s a plan:

• Assume the receiver has paid x TRX when accepting the vault locking request. To incentivize quicker pickups, the system can offer the receiver a 5% refund on the x TRX if they pick up their package within a day. This not only motivates faster pickups but also helps free up vaults for new deliveries.

Additionally, after the standard 2-day pickup period has passed, a local auditor assigned to that vault location can retrieve the package and store it in a nearby warehouse. The initiator (delivery personnel) or site supervisor will be notified, and they can collect the package, ensuring that the vault is vacated and made available for another package as soon as possible.

If all vaults in an area are occupied at any given moment, the system will provide real-time information on when the next vault is expected to be vacated. This way, the initiator can either choose to wait for an available vault or opt for an alternate nearby location. This system ensures efficient vault utilization and minimizes delays in the delivery process.

[Youngyuppie]

Welcome to hackaTron S7. I’m missing out on how your project can integrate blockchain technology since it deals with traditional delivery of items. Can you please explain how you leverage the power of blockchain technology in creating this sustainable delivery solution?

[parthasaini]

Blockchain technology plays a pivotal role in the Tron Vault delivery solution, creating a secure, transparent, and environmentally sustainable system for package delivery. Here’s how I leverage the power of blockchain to achieve these goals:

1. Decentralization and Transparency:

Blockchain is inherently decentralized, which means that Tron Vault operates without relying on a central authority. All package transactions, whether locking or unlocking vaults, are recorded on the TRON blockchain. This provides full transparency to all parties involved—senders, receivers, and auditors—ensuring that every action is verifiable and traceable.

By recording these transactions immutably, blockchain ensures that the history of every package’s delivery is securely stored and publicly auditable. This eliminates the risk of tampering or manipulation by any third party, creating a system that users can trust.

2. Cryptographic Security:

Blockchain employs strong cryptographic techniques to secure sensitive information. In Tron Vault, each package transaction is associated with unique cryptographic hashes that are tied to the sender’s and receiver’s TRON wallets. For example, the MAGIC TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password) and the 4-digit pin used to unlock the vault are securely encrypted using blockchain-based cryptography, ensuring that only the authorized receiver can decrypt and access the package.

This security model greatly reduces the chances of fraud or unauthorized access, as only users with the correct cryptographic keys can unlock the vault, providing a highly secure environment for package handling.

3. Incentivizing Eco-Friendly Behavior:

Blockchain’s native cryptocurrency functionality allows Tron Vault to create a reward-based system that incentivizes eco-friendly actions. For instance, when users pick up their packages promptly, they are rewarded with a 5% refund on the TRX they paid to lock the vault. This encourages users to retrieve their packages sooner, reducing the amount of time the vault is occupied and allowing for more deliveries with fewer environmental impacts.

Additionally, by enabling users to tip initiators for efficient deliveries, Tron Vault further encourages responsible behavior, creating a positive feedback loop that motivates all participants to reduce unnecessary transportation and act quickly to free up vault space.

4. Trustless Payments and Fee Management:

The use of TRX (TRON’s cryptocurrency) facilitates fast, secure, and trustless transactions. Payment for locking vaults, incentives for early pickups, and tipping initiators all occur directly on the blockchain, without the need for intermediaries like banks or payment processors. This reduces transaction costs and ensures that payments are handled transparently and securely.

The funds are distributed fairly and instantly once conditions are met. For example:

• A portion of the TRX paid by the receiver is distributed to the initiator as a reward for eco-friendly behavior.
• The rest is split between administrative fees and user incentives.

This seamless, trustless payment system improves user experience and ensures that the entire process is efficient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly.

By combining the decentralization, transparency, security, and automation of blockchain technology, Tron Vault delivers an innovative solution to the growing problems of environmental pollution and package security. Blockchain ensures that each transaction is secure, verifiable, and tamper-proof, while smart contracts automate and incentivize eco-friendly actions, resulting in a sustainable, efficient, and trusted delivery system. This integration of blockchain into the logistics sector not only reduces the carbon footprint of deliveries but also revolutionizes the way packages are handled, making the process smarter, safer, and greener.

Do let me know if you have any more doubts

[parthasaini]

This project offers significant value to users by addressing the large-scale need for secure and efficient package delivery. Currently, many new users unfamiliar with Web3 tend to associate the space primarily with NFTs, largely due to the overwhelming focus on digital art and collectibles. This perception exists because there hasn’t been a widespread, practical application of blockchain technology that directly benefits users in their everyday lives. Few companies have ventured into meaningful blockchain integration projects that truly showcase the power and utility of Web3 beyond speculative assets.

My project seeks to bridge that gap by demonstrating how blockchain can be applied in a practical, impactful way that benefits users. It goes beyond hype and focuses on real-world use cases, such as enhancing the security and efficiency of package deliveries. This project shows the true potential of blockchain technology to simplify and improve daily processes, making Web3 more accessible and valuable to a broader audience. By doing so, it helps demystify Web3 and shows that its usefulness extends far beyond NFTs, providing tangible benefits that users can appreciate and adopt.

[EvanCFCE]

Did you just type his question into ChatGPT to get a response? Be honest

[parthasaini]

Nope

Just used Grammarly to ensure that the syntax is correct! I am sure you must be saying that because of the first line: Sure. Here is the response for your query:

I added it just to start by telling that the below stuff is the response of the initial query That’s true and best to my knowledge

Removed that line and made a couple of corrections! I do wish you don’t get carried away now.

Just assembling the hardware part now. Will be adding that in a day’s time

[EvanCFCE]

Thank you for the very prompt response!

[parthasaini]

Your welcome. Since I posted the project on the forum, I am regularly looking for user’s queries, and as soon as someone posts it, I try to frame the answer. That’s why, even after looking the query within a second. I spend a generous amount of time in framing the answer.

I would love to answer any of your query regarding the project. By the way, do look out for the final demo video to see how the project pans out

By the way, its of no use, if someone is using a GPT to answer the queries related to his/her project. Maker is the best one that can answer the queries correctly and aptly (❁´◡`❁)

[EvanCFCE]

Do you have a picture of what the vaults might look like? Some concept art or a mock-up maybe? Seems like a cool idea and perhaps you could seek investment from Amazon or other delivery services.

I feel like, as with any public physical infrastructure, there might be overhead associated with cleaning, upkeep and security though. You’d have to pay staff for each box.

What I’m not clear on is how blockchain specifically provides utility for this service. Why wouldn’t you just use normal payment methods? Not saying there’s not a reason, I just can’t think of one off-hand.

[parthasaini]

Nope, @EvanCFCE I do not have a mock-up for the Vault. As I cannot find any locker/encrypted-vault on Amazon/other platforms, I am using a 12V DC Solenoid Lock that will be unlocked if the actual receiver unlocks the vault. I have ordered that, but as of now I have my hands on a DC motor, and that would actually unlock the gate of the vault.

Because having a vault specifically made for the project seems out of scope at the current moment, and as of now I am just finalizing the software and hardware needs to ensure that the project is working smoothly.

I can give you an overview of the hardware parts included in the project

Nodemcu (ESP8666 WiFi module), RFID Scanner, RFID Tag, 4-key capacitive touch keypad, and an 16*2 LCD

As I mentioned earlier, a particular location will be having many vaults of varying sizes. The package that would be dropped off would be in the covering itself, and even after that there is some sort of litter, the local auditor can clean up the vaults. It’s no big deal, because everything comes in eco-friendly packaging, and no one would open the package right in the middle of the road. So, chances of having garbage is very small, and even if something is there, the assigned auditor will do the needful.

Do note that, once the vault is unlocked, the receiver can’t force the vault to close it. It will automatically be closed after sometime. And even if the user puts something inside the vault without initiating the LOCK cycle, then an error message will be shown for that vault, and the auditor can actually clear up the same, and make the vault ready for the actual drop off for a package.

As far as blockchain’s utility for this project is concerned, I am again providing you some reasoning:

1. First of all, let me clear this thing, this is not specifically for handling the packages that have to be delivered by the delivery partners. A person can also place a package for his/her known (and in that case, the initiator pays for the fee).
2. The project is providing a secure place that connects the package to the receiver. So, with the inclusion of Blockchain, it is ensured that only the actual receiver will be getting that package (as it’s a decentralized platform, irrespective of the traditional payment methods in which anyone can pay).

The receiver must have the RFID Card (dispatched to the user at the time of registration), and the TRON LINK wallet access, to start the unlocking process. So, its not like, if someone got the card access, then they can just pay the minimal fee for the vault, and steal that entire valuable package!

Blockchain provides the best way to secure a vault and only allows the actual receiver to open the vault

3. Cryptographic security, and global accessibility are some of the other reasons why I think that Blockchain would best aid the project over the regular in-consistent traditional payment methods.

[Smart1]

Here are a few questions

1. What security features does Tron Vault implement to ensure the safe storage of packages during delivery?

2. How does the use of secure vaults reduce the risks of theft and damage compared to traditional delivery methods?

3. What measures are in place to verify user identity and access to the vaults to prevent unauthorized retrieval of packages?

[parthasaini]

If that’s the case, I can change my project’s name. Is it allowed, @WindsOfChange92 ?

[parthasaini]

@Smart1, I am thinking of adding another functionality to the project. Let me finalize that, and then I can correctly answer your queries.

[Okorie]

Welcome to hackathon session 7
After reading your project, I understand that Tron Vault ideal is innovative and it’s addresses a real-world problem in a unique way, and above all the blending of blockchain technology, especially TRON, for enhanced security and transparency is mouthwatering.
But I have few questions that needs Tron vault clarity.

• What are your plans to scope the vault network to integrate growing demand in different areas.

• What steps has vault put in place to ensure their security and functionality over time.

[Lisa1]

Welcome to Tron Hackathon season 7. What you intend building is good. First try to change the name so we can spot the difference.
For the things you intend to add, it’s advisable to do them as soon as you can before this season’s Hackathon come to an end.
I got few questions that needs clarity

1. How does the platform ensure that vaults are freed up if packages aren’t retrieved within two days?
   2.In what ways does Tron Vault promote eco-friendly practices in package delivery?

[WindsOfChange92]

If you can edit your devpost submission and post, go for it. If not then just keep it the same.

[parthasaini]

Okay, will do that now