Vechain's original idea began back in 2007 under a subsidiary named BitsSe in China. Sunny Lu was the main inventor of the blockchain and built it to allow a full view of the supply chain of any company that uses it. However, the project went live in 2015, nearly a decade later. At launch it was trading under the name VEN, later rebranding in 2018 to Vechain & Vechain thor as well as shifting focus to fully focus on supply chain management instead of being a tool for the internet of things.
Vechain quickly managed to make it to the top 16 spot after its launch and it's been staying fairly consistent and close to that spot since then, most cryptos tend to fall into obscurity. The company behind Vechain has been working on facilitating partnerships with different companies to increase adoption. One of the biggest partnerships they've managed recently is the partnership with the Chinese government, recent project for the Chinese government was to track and record the vaccine production in mainland China.
The blockchain was created to streamline the process of tracking and storing data between different devices and countries. Later this was reworked to work exclusively for supply chains and was optimized for that task. The chain doesn't use traditional proof-of-work/stake, instead they use proof-of-authority, this method as centralized nodes controlled by Vechain verify transactions where not all nodes are needed to vote, reaching faster finality times. Vechain consists of two tokens: Vechain & Vethor token energy. Both of them fulfill separate functions in order to maximize efficiency and security on the network.
The main token is used to store and track value & data across the blockchain. One such application could be the tracking of shipments of medicine from one company to a another. The chain can tag and track relevant data such as quantity, distance traveled, transportation method, quality, etc. This is conveniently stored on-chain and allows users of the chain to access this data. Stakeholders of the coin needs to hold tokens in order to access on-chain data.
This token is meant as gas, solely being used to pay the transaction fees associated with the blockchain's smart contracts. This token doesn't store or access any of the data on-chain. The main users of this token are the companies/governments that have implemented and use Vechain in their supply chain.
Vechain is used today by various companies to streamline and increase data collecting efficiency for their supply chain. The chain supports storage of various data assets which can all be contributed to specific part of the supply chain. This helps increase awareness and decrease errors during the transport process and also empower the users with data. The sidechain VeThor token is held and used by the companies also using Vechain to help them perform actions on chain.
For investors they can simply speculate the value of the coin based on well adopted and used it is as that directly correlates with increased value. The general public has no real use case for either chain as it's mainly targeted for companies.
Time has allowed Vechain to stay strong and grow as other tokens/coins tend to fall out of the public eye after some years. Its main strength has been its ability to secure partnerships and use from several companies. Everyday use increases the price both tokens as companies that wishes to use the chain needs both. If it can continue to grow and keep up with other tokens remains to be seen, I believe that we haven't seen the last of Vechain.
