European Innovation Council Awards 5 Mln Euros To Six Blockchain Start-ups

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 7/2/2020 10:13 AM ET

The European Commission's European Innovation Council (EIC) has awarded 5 million euros or about $5.6 million, to six wining start-ups providing innovative blockchain solutions for social good.

The "Blockchains for Social Good" award recognizes and supports the efforts made by developers and civil society in exploring the applications of blockchain in the area of social innovation to create positive social change.

The proposed solutions covered six different social innovation areas such as traceability and fair trade, financial inclusion, decentralised circular economy, transparency of public processes, participation in democratic decision-making, and management of public records.

The winners were selected in a call to identify scalable, deployable and high-impact blockchain solutions for societal challenges.

The winning blockchain applications were WordProof by Dutch SME WordProof B.V., PPP by UK social enterprise Project Provenance Ltd., GMeRitS by Finnish university Aalto, PROSUME by Italian Prosume srl, CKH2020 by French cooperative Kleros, and UnBlocked Cash Project OXBBU by Irish Oxfam and French startup Sempo.

The competition sought to award 1 million euros each to the five innovators that come up with the most promising Blockchain solutions in five different social innovation areas. The requirement of the competition was to submit solutions developed in Open Source.

Finally, the first four solutions were awarded 1 million euros each and the fifth prize was shared between two solutions as they were a combined fifth.

The six winners were selected from 176 applications from 43 countries that showed the potential to address local and global challenges with blockchain technology that offers decentralised, trusted and transparent solutions. They addressed fairly well all the six areas, and 13 additional areas proposed by the applicants themselves.

While the revolutionary potential of blockchains has been tested in the financial domain in particular, its possible applications in social domains and to address sustainability challenges have been explored far less.

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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

California Giant Berry Farms Joins Blockchain-based IBM Food Trust Network

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 5/19/2020 10:08 AM ET

Berry producer California Giant Berry Farms became the latest to team up with IBM Blockchain to apply blockchain technology to trace its berries from the farms to the consumers.

The tracking will be done through Cloud network IBM Food Trust solution, which is based on Blockchain Hyperledger technology. This will enable the company to provide its customers with provenance and product tracking.

California Giant will use Glassbit's Glasschain integration software, a compliance-as-a-service (CaaS) solution, to link its customers ERP software with the IBM Food Trust network.

The network will enable transparency in the supply chain by providing real-time status of the berries including harvest location and advanced shipping notifications to distribution centers. This will help maximize the shelf life of products such as berries that have a very short shelf life.

Walmart, which is also a IBM Food Trust member and stocks California Giant berries, said it can achieve a safer, smarter, more digital food system for everyone by working together with more suppliers to further blockchain's adoption.

From leafy greens to bell peppers, Walmart has been digitizing its food supply chain using blockchain. This enables them to track food from farm to store and helps ensure it is fresh and safe when customers buy it. Customers can scan a QR-code printed on product packs using a smartphone to access all information about the products journey from the farm to the consumer.

The use of blockchain for food provenance will help reduce food fraud, including mislabeled, diluted or substituted foodstuffs.

A recent IBM Institute for Business Value study found that 73 percent of consumers will pay a premium for full transparency into the products they buy.

IBM Food Trust network connects growers, processors, distributors, shippers, retailers, regulators, and consumers through a permissioned, permanent and shared record of food system data.

Other firms that are part of IBM Food Trust include Nestlé, Carrefour, Avril Group, Topco Associates, Wakefern, BeefChain, Dennick Fruit Source, Scoular, and Smithfield as well as other multinational companies such as Kroger, Tyson Foods, and Unilever.

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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

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Wyoming's Carbon County To Place Land Records On Blockchain

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 4/17/2020 10:43 AM ET

Carbon County in the Western U.S. State of Wyoming is set to implement a blockchain-powered land registry system in 2020, which will assure immutability of records and help in registering and validating property ownership with a clear chain of title.

The land records and information platform will be developed in partnership with Overstock.com's blockchain subsidiary Medici Land Governance (MLG), which focuses on land administration.

In a similar deal with MLG, Wyoming's Teton County became the first county in the U.S. to record land information, going back to 1996, on a blockchain platform last year. It included warranty deeds, mortgages, release of liens, and other similar documents.

Like in Teton County, MLG will be providing a critical layer of protection and facilitating transparency for title holders in any property transaction.

MLG will now work with Carbon County to develop and implement software that will transfer and display existing digital Carbon County public land records to a new blockchain-based registry system. The registry will serve as an archive to Carbon County's current systems.

The system will use MLG's technologies, policies, and programs to track, record, and make available to the public certain information related to real property for management purposes. Once implemented, it will also automatically capture and record subsequent land administration transactions and updates to the blockchain platform.

The title information that is obscured for viewing on the current Carbon County system will also be obscured from the blockchain-based system, but all public records will be available at the Carbon County clerk's office.

In August 2018, MLG had signed a deal with the World Bank to enhance access to secure land rights in developing countries by supporting the design, implementation, and evaluation of pilot programs that will create systems to ensure secure land tenure.

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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Nestlé To Use IBM Blockchain For Traceability Of Zoégas Coffee Brand

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 4/7/2020 10:35 AM ET

Swiss food major Nestlé is extending the use of IBM Blockchain to apply blockchain technology to track Zoégas coffee brand to provide coffee lovers greater transparency on product checks and origins.

Nestlé successfully applied blockchain technology to track a popular mashed potato brand in Europe, Nestle Maggi's Mousline puree, in mid-April. It also started tracking GUIGOZ Bio 2 and 3 organic infant milk range on the IBM Food Trust platform in November 2019.

Nestlé has now teamed up with a third party – The Rainforest Alliance – to independently provide reliable data on the coffee brand beyond what is usually disclosed by the company.

The Zoégas coffee brand will be tracked using blockchain-based Cloud network IBM Food Trust solution, which is based on Blockchain Hyperledger technology.

Nestlé has launched select editions of Zoégas whole beans and roast & ground coffee in Sweden. It introduced a 100% Rainforest Alliance certified blend of arabica coffee beans from three origins – Brazil, Rwanda and Colombia.

The Rainforest Alliance provides their own certification information, guarantying the traceability of the coffee, which is directly accessible to everyone on the IBM Food Trust blockchain platform.

One can follow the coffee's journey from the growing locations to the Zoégas factory in Helsingborg where the beans are roasted, grounded and packed. The blockchain-recorded data includes information about farmers, time of harvest, transaction certificate for the specific shipments, as well as roasting period.

Consumers could receive reliable and unfalsifiable information on the supply chain and production by scanning the QR code on the packaging using a smartphone.

Nestlé has conducted several tests as a founding member of the IBM Food Trust platform since 2017. The network connects growers, processors, distributors, shippers, retailers, regulators, and consumers through a permissioned, permanent and shared record of food system data. This will enable them to work together to trace and authenticate products or optimize supply chain processes.

Other firms that are part of IBM Food Trust include Topco Associates, Wakefern, BeefChain, Dennick Fruit Source, Scoular, and Smithfield as well as other multinational companies such as Kroger, Tyson Foods, and Unilever.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe