The Starting Point: Why Aren’t Digitized Rights Considered Logistics?
When hearing that information flow is a subsystem of logistics, a sharp question naturally arises: "What about exchanging documents that prove ownership, or trading cryptocurrency and NFTs, which are digital data themselves?" These, too, move in the form of data and information, yet they clearly belong to commercial distribution (commercial flow) rather than logistics. Behind the commonality of handling intangible information lies a decisive difference: "purpose."
Ownership Documents: Legal Commerce Completing the Transfer of Rights
The act of circulating ownership documents—such as real estate deeds, stock certificates, or Bills of Lading (B/L)—is essentially the "transfer of rights" itself. Such documents or data are not auxiliary means that instruct where or how to move a physical item. They are the core media of a transaction that completes a contract, settles payments, and legally declares, "The owner of this asset has changed." In other words, although they take the form of information, the sole purpose of the act is the confirmation of ownership and title transfer, firmly placing it in the domain of commercial distribution.
Crypto and Digital Assets: A New Concept of Commercial Flow Exchanging Value and Ownership
The same principle applies to exchanging cryptocurrencies or NFTs on a blockchain network. What moves in a crypto transaction is not a physical object, but the "ownership of a digital asset" and its "economic value." When a token moves from A’s wallet to B’s wallet, this is not a physical movement like goods leaving a warehouse and being loaded onto a truck. It is merely the process of recording a new subject of value and rights on a ledger. Therefore, crypto trading can be viewed as the purest modern form of commercial distribution.
The Two Faces of Information: "Changing Rights" vs. "Moving Entities"
Ultimately, the criterion that determines where information belongs in distribution is "What is that information used for?"
Information That Determines Ownership vs. Information That Directs Execution
Ownership documents and crypto transactions reach their destination under the guise of information, but that destination is always the "establishment of ownership." On the other hand, information flow in logistics exists to accomplish the "movement of physical entities" based on ownership that has already been decided. Even when using the same tool called "information," the boundary between commercial trade and logistics is clearly drawn by whether it "completes the transfer of rights" or "directs physical movement."
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