The $100 Billion Problem Nobody Has Solved Yet
Amazon is nearly 31 years old and still hasn’t solved the fake review problem.
In fact, according to Fakespot, 42% of reviews in 2022 were estimated to be fake. That’s nearly half of the trust layer on the largest e-commerce platform in the world.
And Amazon has the nerve to claim they want to be “the most customer-centric company in the world.”
How can you be customer-centric if the reviews aren’t real?
The Real Problem Isn’t Just Spam Bots
Let’s break down the types of fake reviews:
Bot Accounts: Created en masse
Purchased Reviews: Real users paid to write
Spite Reviews: Real but malicious
Silent Majority: Real users don’t review
So even if you detect bots, you still haven’t solved human dishonesty, or human silence.
The Solution: Verified, Incentivized, and Immutable Reviews
What if every product had a unique, single-use QR code printed on or inside the packaging?
That QR code would:
🔒 Allow only one verified review tied to that product unit.
🔁 Be burned once scanned.
📱 Open a frictionless review flow (text or video).
💰 Reward the reviewer in crypto points.
🔗 Publish the review on blockchain for transparency and immutability.
Suddenly, you've solved four major issues at once.
Why Blockchain + QR Is a Game-Changer
Transparency: You can audit every review back to a unique product unit.
Trust: Immutable records ensure reviews can't be tampered with.
Interoperability: A review ecosystem token could be accepted across retailers.
Incentive Design: Reward real feedback not positive, not negative, just honest reviews.
Imagine a world where you don’t hope reviews are real you know they are.
The Business Opportunity
Solving this creates a new kind of infrastructure. A universal truth layer for commerce.
Fake reviews aren’t just annoying, they are they’re the single greatest breakdown in digital trust today.
Verified, one-time-use QR codes combined with crypto and blockchain could fix it.
And whoever builds it, wins.