TokenLink: a secure loyalty point exchange system powered by smart contracts

Abstract

Loyalty initiatives refer to the rewards offered by a business to customers who make recurring purchases. Traditional loyalty programmes, on the other hand, have numerous disadvantages, including low redemption rates, expired points, high user acquisition costs, and the difficulty of administering multiple loyalty programmes. Several of these issues can be addressed by utilizing blockchain technology. This paper examines the shortcomings of current loyalty programs and the potential applications of blockchain technology to resolve them. In an effort to improve customer benefits and retention rates while making it simpler for businesses to operate their own loyalty programmes, author proposes a blockchain-powered global loyalty network. This platform intends to combine multiple loyalty programs into a single system to facilitate the transmission of loyalty points between users and to promote co-branding among numerous businesses with global locations.

Keywords:

• Loyalty initiatives
• blockchain technology
• retention rates
• traditional loyalty programmes
• co-branding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hartik Suhagiya

Hartik Suhagiya is a Master of Science in Computer Science student at Arizona State University in the USA. He completed his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) degree in Computer Engineering from Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering in Mumbai, India. He is interested in the Information Security, Blockchain Technology, and Machine Learning domains. He has also gathered practical experience from the internship, along with research and innovation in the security field. He has 3 published papers in top publications, viz., Springer, Taylor & Francis (scope indexed), out of which 2 are security-oriented and 1 is machine learning-based.

Hrithik Mistry

Hrithik Mistry is presently working at Oracle as a Software Developer. He completed his B.Tech. degree from Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering in Mumbai, India. Hrithik's interests are Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and cybersecurity. He has several projects on Machine Learning. He has 2 published papers in well-known publication IEEE.

Aryan Trivedi

Aryan Trivedi is a Senior Executive at Deloitte within the Financial Advisory Service Line. He has completed his B.Tech. in Computer Engineering from Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering (Mumbai, India). He has published a paper in ICACTA titled ‘Enhanced Schema for Proof of Stake Mechanism Based on Stake Size and Random Validator Selection’. This paper presents algorithms that overcome the limitations of the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. Blockchain, Analytics, Forensics, Data Security, SDLC and Finance are his areas of interest.

Ramchandra Mangrulkar

Dr. Ramchandra Mangrulkar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at Dwarkadas J. Sanghvi College of Engineering in Mumbai, India. He holds various memberships in professional organizations such as IEEE, ISTE, ACM, and IACSIT. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Computer Science and Engineering from S.G.B. Amravati University in Maharashtra, and Master of Technology (MTech) degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. Dr. Mangrulkar is proficient in several technologies and tools, including Microsoft's Power BI, Power Automate, Power Query, Power Virtual Agents, Google's Dialog Flow, and Overleaf. With over 22 years of combined teaching and administrative experience, Dr. Mangrulkar has established himself as a knowledgeable and skilled professional in his field. He has also obtained certifications like Certified Network Security Specialist (ICSI - CNSS) from ICSI, UK. Dr. Mangrulkar has a strong publication record with 95 publications including refereed/peer-reviewed international journal publications, book chapters with international publishers (including Scopus indexed ones), and international conference publications. As an academician, Dr. Mangrulkar has served as an approved Ph.D. Supervisor at Mumbai University and an approved Ph.D. Co-Supervisor at D.Y. Patil Deemed to be University.

Pallavi Chavan

Dr. Pallavi Chavan is working as Associate professor in department of Information Technology, Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Nerul, Navi Mumbai, MH, India. She is graduated from Nagpur University in 2003 with the first merit in the university for the degree of Computer Engineering. She completed her post-graduation in computer science and engineering from MGMCOE, Nanded in 2007. She completed her Ph.D. from RTM Nagpur University Nagpur, in JAN 2017. The title of her Ph.D. thesis was “An Intelligent System for Secure Authentication Using Hierarchical Visual Cryptography”. Her area of research and interest are Visual Cryptography, image processing and machine learning. She is the recipient of financial assistance from UGC for conduction of national level WORKSHOPs two times. She is also a recipient of CSIR seminar grant for conduction of national level seminar. She is having 14 years of teaching experience through which she guided many UG as well as PG students. She was a member of BOS for ROBOTICS board in NAGPUR UNIVERSITY. She has published 40 research papers in journals and conferences including science direct, Springer, ACEEE and IEEE. Citation count for her publications is 125. She believes: TEACHING IS A MISSION AND NOT A PROFESSION.