Empowering producers and building D2C models with blockchain

Empowering producers and building D2C models with blockchain

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VeChain’s 5th webinar focused on Producers Market, a digital marketplace linking stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem that aims to bring “transparency and trust from soil to sale”. 

Their vision is to develop a one-stop app that connects producers with consumers and captures all value chain data from end to end. Hosted by Jason Rockwood, VeChain’s General Manager in America, and Alex Karzag, Producers Market’s Chief Project Officer, the episode gave us a glance at their collaborations and upcoming projects.

 

Business as a force for good

Many projects leverage blockchain to increase supply chain transparency and detect operational inefficiencies as well as new business opportunities. However, few of them are as impact driven as Producers Market. In addition to private corporations, the company works with governmental organisations and NGOs to have a positive social impact and empower underserved farmers. An example is their collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), via which they are helping to plan the growth and expansion of the Zero Budget Natural Farming project in India.

 

The power of story telling

VeChain’s collaboration with Producers Market involves StoryBird, a platform that engages producers with consumers and enables them to gather and share data with the public via a QR code .

“One of the big purposes of StoryBird is consumer education through storytelling so they can make empowered decisions. Give them the ability to make these conscious and empowered decisions about their consumption habits. And really at the end it also gives everyone else in the supply chain the chance to tell their story.” – Alex Karzag

As a content delivery system, StoryBird doesn’t require blockchain for all its use cases. However, for many of them, blockchain is the backbone of the producer’s story telling; allowing the verification of data for any supplier or product claim. By giving producers a way to build a trusting digital presence, StoryBird also opens the door to new direct-to-consumer business models; an opportunity that Producer Market hopes to grasp. As Jason pointed out, consumers rarely know the real origin of their products, trusting retailers like Whole Food or Walmart to make the right decisions. But what happens when this trust is broken such as during the 2013 horse meat scandal in Europe? By connecting producers with consumers, suppliers become more accountable and where possible, fairer trades and direct to consumer sales can be introduced. 

Like with Fresh Supply Co., Producers Market has worked with IBM’s Food Trust on initiatives before. However, they were attracted to VeChain due to its easy to deploy, cost-effective and scalable design. According to Alex, VeChain’s architectural structure was also a key factor as it readily allowed them to apply a Resources, Event, Agents (REA) accounting approach; a modelling technique that traces all the resources in a supply chain, captures the value creation pattern in all interactions and reveals why business processes occur. In their case, the resources are the products represented by the VeChain IDs, the events are the transaction IDs and the agents (or organisations involved) are the user IDs.

Looking to the future, it was promising to learn that an animal protein project is in the works and that Producers Market has a pipeline that includes an Australian organic essential oils business, a Central American produce retailer and several associations looking to prevent fraud of Costa Rican coffee products. Being a startup however, I’m curious to see how the team manages to cope with such diverse and international partnerships. Blockchain companies already need to overcome knowledge gap challenges and adding cultural, communication and time zone differences into the mix further increases the complexity of such projects. That said, with reliable partners and by continuously building on their experience, I am optimistic that Producers Market will continue empowering producers and make a global social impact.

A recap of the webinar can be found below:

For more information visit Producers Market’s website.

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Introducing Humans of Blockchain: Sarah Nabaa

Introducing Humans of Blockchain: Sarah Nabaa

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Blockchain enthusiasts are constantly bombarded with new network upgrades, business project releases and technical analyses. Inspired by the “Humans of New York” project, we are introducing “Humans of Blockchain”; an initiative to highlight the human side of the industry and showcase blockchain professionals around the world.

The goal is to get to know the people pushing blockchain forward better and understand them at a personal level. If there is a specific blockchain figure you would like us to cover or have any questions you would like us to ask, please get it touch.

 

Humans of Blockchain: Sarah Nabaa

Sarah Nabaa – VeChain VP SE Asia and Australasia


To kickoff the series, we had the privilege to speak to Sarah Nabaa, VeChain’s Vice-President of SE Asia & Australasia. She is primarily responsible for business development and identifying key technology partners in the supply chain, IoT, provenance and agritechnology fields.

According to a LongHash survey on 100 blockchain startups, women only account for 14.5% of employees and 7% of managers. This interview was a unique chance for us to understand what it means to be a female professional in a male-dominated blockchain space.

 

Tell us about yourself and how you got into blockchain.

I graduated with an EEE Degree but I never wanted to be an engineer. Instead, I wanted very badly to be a proprietary trader, which I did at 24.

At 25, I saved up some money, bootstrapped, started an e-commerce business with my best friend, sold it at 31 and decided I wanted to work in business development for a technology start-up.

I first learnt about the Ethereum Blockchain at a property-technology start-up back in January 2017 where the CTO wanted to introduce blockchain for many reasons:

1) a property maintenance logbook where all home and repair services hired by homeowners on his platform had proof of records maintained on the blockchain 

2) use of smart contracts for ownership transfer and payment for rentals

I had my first interview with Sunny and Jay in May 2017 through David Fowler from PwC Venture Hub. Interestingly, Jay came back with an offer in Oct 2017 asking me if I was able to start in November as employee #1 in Singapore. It was very surreal and exciting, I’ve not looked back since and I am amazed how fast time has flown by when work is enjoyable.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Post COVID19 : Have to work remotely since Singapore entered circuit breaker from 03 April – 01 June

Catching up on my emails, scheduling conference calls with existing customers, new inbounds & channel partners, working on potential proposals, drafting agreements with our legal counsel and networking on LinkedIn. One minute we are speaking to someone in luxury, the next someone in fish farming. Clients can range from IoT to energy, which makes my job interesting as I learn so much about the various industries.

How would you explain blockchain and VeChain to a 10 years old?

I personally like this video but if YouTube explainer videos are not allowed, here’s my analogy for a 10 yr old.

A football game is broadcasted before a full stadium and satellite TV. Imagine if everyone had a pen and a notebook to note down who scored during the game. For noting the sequence of goals correctly, all witnesses will earn a prize.

Changing the sequence of who scored during the game or changing the outcome is impossible as this would require getting all spectators in the stadium and people who watched it from home to agree. But if there was no “live” telecast, and only 4 people were in the audience, it would be a lot easier to bribe these 4 witnesses to change the sequence in the order I want.

Blockchain is like the first scenario, it is a digital record of events recorded in a chronological order by a network of witnesses globally. Each witness has a copy and every event bears a digital thumbprint which we call a unique ID. Any change in the records will fire off alarms as it will be noticed by the network of witnesses and rejected.

There are many blockchain networks in the world and VeChain’s network is maintained by 101 companies as witnesses, it also has many cool features which make it easy for enterprise companies to integrate this technology into existing processes. It is named after Thor, the God of Lightning as it is lightning fast and strong.

What excites you the most about VeChain and the blockchain sector and what are the biggest obstacles?

“VeChain is fast gaining popularity for its accomplishments and notable partnerships worldwide. I know we are on the right track as we are beginning to see other protocols and consultancies preaching about the benefits of using public blockchain and adopting similar consensus mechanisms. At the same time, our pipelines are growing in all regions across various industries.”

I am thankful our global team is professional and has DNV GL and PwC as strategic partners because that helps a lot. Not to mention our work with other clients in automotive, fashion, logistics, agri and luxury stands firm and true as our testimonials.

As far as obstacles go, there is still a big gap between enterprises’ understanding of blockchain technology and how it can be applied to their business. Beyond real world use-cases, ROI, value, and additional benefits of using the technology needs to be addressed and communicated more effectively.

Another obstacle I see is that compared to other protocols, I hope to see more developers building on VeChain. Our dev team has introduced many new features which makes it easy and it’s a real pity not to see our community taking advantage of them and building actively.

VeChainThor blockchain is a global protocol network with satellite offices all around the world, and the team should be given more credit for the brilliant products our developers have created as it already has gained a proven track record in working in various industries.

What traits allow your team to succeed?

Have you met Sunny?  😀

I am sure you will agree he is one person who inspires all of us to be a little more like him. We try to emulate not only his dressing, his professionalism, foresight and of course, humility.

What surprised you the most about working in the blockchain industry?

I spent most of 2019 explaining what is blockchain technology in most meetings. I do feel there is a huge gap between people who understand blockchain and people who do not. There is always a tendency to mistake cryptocurrency for blockchain technology but I feel we have a long way to go in terms of educating the masses.

There was one point in time where blockchain was termed as a hype, and it sure as hell made IoT very sexy again. We would get a lot of leads asking to come up with comprehensive solutions and this is why we started building an approved vendor network, looking out for potential vendors who can provide their solutions to our clients.

I was also surprised at the number of companies who were asking for a form of investment or payment for them to use VeChain which was really uncalled for as it is not in our interest to invest in the companies that utilise our blockchain protocol.

What do you think are the most common misconceptions about women in blockchain? Have they affected you in any way?

“I think the common misconceptions is that women are not seen as technology-savvy and people tend to discredit the technology knowledge that women know… They’d rather hear it from a male, which is why I’ll always have my project manager to go to meetings with me and have them answer their technology questions even though I know the answers to them.”

It’s just the way the world works and I’ll rather work with that bias to our advantage by having my project manager always on standby and answer questions rather than lose a deal.

How can we improve gender diversity in the sector?

Teach girls programming and coding from a young age to build up a talent pool on the supply side. Companies could work to having some kind of ratio as a benchmark and hire more women in management too.

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?

In the Crypto space – Meltem Demirrors. I know she is all about Tezos and Bitcoin but she is changing investor minds about cryptocurrencies and I personally think payments and identity are two areas where we will see blockchain being a huge disruptor.

In the technology space – hands down, Bill Gates for his work at Microsoft, his ferocious appetite for reading and his philanthropic work.

Any guilty pleasures?

During the partial lockdown at home, I found learning how to dance a TikTok challenge very entertaining. It made me and my friends laugh a lot which I thought was important during the lockdown.

What are your hobbies?

I’ve started to play golf with my husband every weekend since Jan 2019. It allows me to really disconnect and focus on my swings. Unfortunately, my short game is really bad at the moment.

What would be your superpower?

My superpower is being irritatingly sunshiny and positive all the time. If I was a SuperHero, I would love to be the female version of Tony Stark – incredibly intelligent engineer who built his own super power – Iron man and is still human at heart.

A fun fact about you?

I was a very sporty person back in school. I was captain of my school Netball teams from elementary to high school and was enrolled into the cross country team at junior college because I was good enough to represent my school. School and sports played a major part in building who I am today.

Before you go… Do you have a favourite quote or meme?

 

Thanks for reading the first article in our Humans of Blockchain series. Please comment on Twitter to let us know which people you would like to see highlighted next!

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Norway in a Box launches prize draw to boost NiBchain adoption and obtain feedback

Norway in a Box launches prize draw to boost NiBchain adoption and obtain feedback

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We wrote about Norway in a Box last year, when we also documented their attendance in “The 1st Important Product Tracing Expo” in Shanghai.

Norway in a Box is an exporter of high-quality Norwegian products such as seafood, health products, mineral water, household goods. Their core product is known as NiBchain; a supplier and order management system that guarantees the origin, sustainability and safety of their food products. Integrated with MyStory™, NiBchain enables customers to verify information such as certificate of origin, health certificate, product journey, temperature log, producer information or farm information of individual items. Suppliers can enter product information into the NiBchain software suite, which then writes critical data to the VeChain mainnet.

 

The platform has now been used by thousands of end consumers and, to continue increasing user adoption and improve their goods and services, Norway in a Box has announced a monthly prize draw contest in China.

To participate, buyers simply need to locate the My Story™ QR code on their product’s box and scan it with the WeChat app. The user will then be redirected to a login page where they can find, fill and submit a questionnaire to share their suggestions, opinions and experience. It is important to note that to be eligible, customers also need to add the brand’s WeChat account to be added to the sweepstake’s WeChat group; where the winners will likely be announced.

Earlier this May, DNV GL Business Assurance (China) posted an article describing how Norway in a Box, DNV GL, and VeChain were working together to solve China’s food safety problems using digital solutions. This shows a renewed push by Norway in a Box to increase their exposure within China. It will also be encouraging to VeChain supporters to see another region continuing their commitment to the public blockchain platform as a tool to increase trade with China, with now Foodgates in France, APAC Provenance Council in Australia and New Zealand, and DNV GL’s Belt-and-road initiative throughout central and western Asia.  

NiBchain landing page

For more information about Norway in a Box and NiBchain visit their websites here and here.

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A closer look at VeChain’s two newest health dApps

A closer look at VeChain’s two newest health dApps

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VeChain’s infrastructure forms the backbone of two groundbreaking new apps for healthcare, including a web app for certified medical institutions to upload a patient’s medical records, as well as a mobile app for tracking disease tracing and other diagnoses.

With a rising population and longer life expectancies, healthcare systems are adopting new technologies to cater to more patients and make faster and smarter diagnoses; ultimately, offering a better patient experience. This is particularly true now. A look around the world shows countries like South Korea and Singapore developing COVID-19 tracking apps, and China has already introduced a number of provincial level “health code” QR systems.

Data sharing, however, remains a critical pain point. According to a 2019 SAP report, health system executives believe that “the greatest impact on improving patient experiences is data sharing between providers, payers and government and industry”.

Sharing sensitive personal information comes with important security and privacy concerns so we were eager to learn how the E-NewHealthLife and E-HCert App will overcome these challenges.

Enter the E-NewHealthLife and E-HCert Apps

E-NewHealthLife and E-HCert App are two blockchain enabled platforms that give patients control over their health records, improve medical data sharing and increase hospital operational efficiencies. While the E-HCert mobile app allows individuals to validate medical test results with third parties, the E-NewHealthLife web app simplifies the process of visiting a hospital.

Through the E-NewHealthLife medical data management system, doctors can upload a patient’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) onto the blockchain which, with the patient’s authorisation, can be temporarily accessed by other institutions; essentially acting as a patient passport. Through a unique personal card and an app, individuals can quickly identify themselves, keep track of their health history, and help hospitals improve their performance. Being able to readily share your own medical data means hospitals can treat you faster and in a more informed way without having to carry out unnecessary testing; even when you are abroad. Digitising current paper-based processes also reduces operational efficiencies and allows healthcare institutions to better track and monitor a patient’s hospitalisation journey; enabling them to carry internal audits and performance asset assessments.

(PRNewsfoto/VeChain)

I-Dante, a Cyprus-based development team, worked with VeChain’s ToolChain to build the E-HCert app. Ferdinando Chiacchio, product manager at I-Dante, attributes VeChain’s fee delegation capabilities and modular, scalable and permissioned infrastructure as key factors to develop B2B solutions on ToolChain. Due to the sensitivity of personal medical records, having a permissioned network is critical for privacy and security concerns and less volatile transaction fees makes it easier to build business-friendly solutions. In his opinion, having a flexible and modular architecture is essential as it enables I-Dante to progressively add more functionalities and services into the platform, which is what enabled them to develop the E-HCert app in less than three weeks.

 

 

“The E-NewHealthLife highlights the ultimate Patient Centrality. Redefining the HealthCare industry by leveraging the power of the VeChain Thor public blockchain. I would like to thank the teams that worked hard during these difficult and unprecedented times to build such a complex and sophisticated ecosystem solution.” Dimitris Neocleous

While the E-NewHealthLife contains a person’s full health history, the E-HCert App acts as a certification wallet via which patients can receive, verify and validate their medical test results with third parties. According to Dimitris Neocleous, VeChain ecosystem manager, “where other big companies are focusing on contract tracing, the E-HCert focuses in the return to the society and addresses the new normal in a responsible and cautious way”.

If you are tested negative for COVID-19 (or positive for its antibodies), for example, you will be able to voluntarily prove your immunity through the app and gain access to public places or travel abroad. Enthusiasts will be pleased to know that the plan is to extend the app in mid-June to all lab tests provided by the Mediterranean Hospital.

Something that wasn’t mentioned but is equally important is the benefit of countering falsified medical records and prescriptions; a problem that in 2018-19 alone, cost the UK’s NHS an estimated £1.27 billion. By only allowing accredited institutions to upload medical records on the blockchain, the integrity of the data is maintained, with the possibility to trace and detect the source of any foul play.

The project is still at an early stage, with the Mediterranean Hospital of Cyprus being the sole institution currently implementing it. However, it has promising potential and will benefit from network effects. There are many tools that could be integrated into the platform and I am curious to see which ones will be prioritised. A vaccination booklet, for example, could be added into the E-HCert App to help patients (specially children) track their vaccination schedules and make an appointment if needed. Projects to gamify and promote healthy lifestyles could also be developed by awarding “milestone badges” to people who achieve specific health goals. As more countries and institutions join the platform, the ability to automatically translate standardised medical test results could also be introduced.

The options are vast and I am confident that the project will have a positive impact on the healthcare system. It is important, however, to remember that the medical industry is a highly regulated and protected sector so enthusiasts should remain patient. Personally, I am excited about the societal value E-NewHealthLife can bring and look forward to see it grow and, hopefully, become the success it deserves to be.

A recording of the webinar can be found below:

For more information about the E-HCert App visit their website.

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Recap: Blockchain In Food Provenance – ToolChain part of efforts to make supply chains resilient

Recap: Blockchain In Food Provenance – ToolChain part of efforts to make supply chains resilient

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Access to safe and nutritious food is key to maintaining physical and mental well-being as well as socioeconomic development.

Unsafe food strains healthcare systems and harms national economies, tourism and trade. The WHO estimates that food-borne diseases are responsible for 600 million people falling ill and 420,000 deaths every year and, according to market research agency Markets and Markets, the global food safety testing market will reach US$24 billion by 2023.

With rising demand for a transparent and better controlled food supply chain, producers are pressured to invest in new technology to stay ahead. Ensuring food safety however, is not an easy task. Supply chains are globally interconnected so good collaboration between governments, producers and consumers is required.

These challenges were the focus of VeChain’s 3rd webinar – hosted by Sarah Nabaa, VeChain’s VP for SE Asia & Australasia, and David Inderias, CEO of Fresh Supply Co and member of the APAC Provenance Council.

“Like building your own car” – David Inderias reveals the pointless nature of private chains

David Inderias, the vocal founder of Fresh Supply Co, isn’t known for beating around the bush. On May 13th, he co-hosted the VeChain Bootcamp alongside VeChain Southeast Asia & Australia GM Sarah Nabaa. As two founding members of the APAC Provenance Council, they were well-positioned to educate the audience on the challenges the industry faces in convincing producers and manufacturers to digitize their supply chains.

Inderias is under no delusions about the task at hand, and unlike others in the space, doesn’t have blockchain adoption as a primary concern. Instead he is focused on bringing value to his customers, whether it’s through blockchain, IoT, digital product identity services, or his ultimate wild card, improved trade finance. The APAC Provenance Council uses Mastercard and Alipay to decrease the time it takes b2b farmers to get paid for their labors, with one caveat – supply chain and provenance info must be verified. To do that, Inderias has entrusted VeChain as the main provider.

This is because he sees little value in building a private network himself, a strategy pushed heavily by large firms like IBM Blockchain and select Big Four accounting firms. He points out that companies in the past did this merely to “check a few boxes” and show their innovative side, without considering the value it brings. He compared it to building your own car, in the sense that it might be a commendable feat on its own, but leaves all kinds of questions regarding whether or not it can perform well enough out on the road. With a number of reliable and exceptional car companies on the market, why bother?

The exceptional car company in this metaphor is VeChain’s ToolChain, which Inderias claims allows him to quickly customize and iterate solutions for a wide range of producers and their vastly different needs. Sarah Nabaa recalled how at their first meeting, David was skeptical that VeChain might be a competitor – now he recognizes that they are one of the few companies with enough credibility and functionality to be trusted in the APAC Provenance Council.

Still, Inderias was pragmatic about the steps that would need to be taken. He wasn’t about to rush out and force solutions down a client’s neck, insisting that properly designing, assessing and reassessing the solution would be necessary to make sure it was done intelligently, and that it provided the most possible value to his paying customers. He laughed about cryptocurrency communities on the internet who often push blockchain projects to show transactions, stating “If you think it’s easy, why don’t you try and sell it [the solution].” He continued to say that his customers include ranchers and family-owned farms that have been operating profitably for multiple generations. “They don’t need you. They don’t think they need you. You better have a very clear explanation of why they need to change”.

Understanding that mentality is key to how Inderias runs his business, especially in an era plagued by COVID-19. He claims to be a technophile, but is aware that most of his customers aren’t. ToolChain allows him to skip the cryptocurrency and technical side and get right to the important stuff – helping his customers improve business processes.

Food supply chain strategies in post-COVID19 world

Sarah kept the pace going throughout the webinar with her own perspective on enterprise adoption. Drawing from her experience with clients, she shared the typical steps involved in a typical ToolChain project and explained how VeChain’s SaaS interface helps managers make better informed decisions.

Typical steps for a process builder project

In her view, the benefits of blockchain should not be restricted to the food industry and should rather be adopted by other industries to disrupt key areas like manufacturing, supply-chain visibility and automation, digitising chain of custodies and sustainability.

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