I have a dream. I always wanted to be a farmer. When I was 10 years old, I nearly enrolled in an agricultural boarding school in North Wales. I have been thinking about the farm for years, but in my mind it's evolved. I'd now like to develop and run a network of urban indoor vegetable farms, inspired by ideas from Science Fiction and others which I've seen in experimental form all over the world from New York to Tokyo & London, where I live.
The Pinkhouse at Caliber Biotherapeutics plants under the glow of blue and red LEDs img src
The aim is to grow maximum yielding and top quality, nutritionally dense, organic produce in the heart of cities, using innovative ideas & cutting edge technology to do so. State of the Art systems for collecting naturally harnessed light, fed along custom filtered fibre optic cables and renewable powered, selective frequency LED lights, providing the perfect growing conditions in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. The food will be free from pollution, with minimal water usage, no pesticides, natural bio-controls and zero carbon transport to the customer.
Cutting edge provenance via blockchain auditing focuses the business on producing high value herbs, salads and vegetables for local restaurant and delicatessen markets. I'm hoping it will catch on and help change how we see agriculture as something we can harness within cities. In the future our food will also be grown just as well by renting spare space on roof gardens in all major towns and cities. It's inspired by my sci-fi dream of a healthier future for people living in cities as electric cars replace diesel and petrol and environmental monitoring ensures healthy air and water for everyone. When green wall thinking turns concrete jungle into an urban paradise for nature and humans, future humans will look back at the cities of today in horror as we do at Medieval towns with their open sewers and densely packed smoking chimneys.
There's a company which have just come up with an answer to how I might raise my start up capital in this futuristic and bold plan and although I'm probably not what they were thinking of when they said Agribusiness innovation crowdfunding, FieldCoin Ltd are setting out to bring innovation to agriculture. It's a BlockChain project and innovation in techniques and technology is just one of it's priorities.
Fieldcoin's main aim is to create the world's first blockchain based land marketplace. It's an ambitious plan and contains a complex set of cleverly interlocking attributes. It's also geared up for the near future, where nation states are rapidly adopting Blockchain technology for tackling the perfect blockchain use case scenario; Land Registry. It all starts with a humble token.
Many Blockchain startups are rushing to tokenise every available asset class there is from objets d'art and collectibles to vehicles, property, gold, diamonds, genetic information and a million other important market concepts like energy, waste and digital assets like music, photography and Intellectual Property rights distribution. It's easy to see why and there are many great use case examples of how this new technology can disrupt existing industries with a leaner, decentralised and distributed model. Using secure encrypted technology & cutting out the many layers of intermediaries and brokers, giving reliable assurance of provenance, trustless transactions and factors of efficiency not possible before, due to today's sprawling, centralised and inefficient organisation's current modus operandi.
Some projects however, seem to be just tokenising for the sake of doing so in a quick dash to make some fast money. Every Revolution has it's Hangers On and Chancers, but the Blockchain revolution is also being driven by a wide range of visionary thinkers and key, or core components currently in development and their reach will ultimately be, game changing on a scale unseen in history.
Fieldcoin Ltd’s mission (in their own words) is to “bring blockchain technology to land property transactions and agricultural crowdfunding projects while creating a stable transaction instrument easing the process of land and agribusiness acquisition."
Food security is one of the biggest issues facing the world's burgeoning population in the era of climate change and land is central to the equation. Land has a reputation as a secure asset and agricultural land is increasingly valuable so it's a reliable store of value. This is attractive to investors and as those in the crypto sector seek to diversify their gains, what better way to ensure a long term investment's value than to own land as an asset? The transfer and ownership of land has traditionally been a transactionally slow quagmire of red tape, which blockchain can handle elegantly and efficiently. By opening up the purchase, sale and management of land internationally through blockchain, Fieldcoin aims to enable a stable and reliable asset backed currency and they have thought up some interesting ways to ensure investors are cushioned from the volatility of the crypto markets. They can also manage your land for you.
The challenge of growing more food for future generations can be managed with new ideas, new approaches and new technology. The use of drones to inspect and analyse crop growth helps farmers balance the use of fertilisers in their cycles, producing less waste & pollution. Self driving vehicles can crop 24 hours per day maximising yields during sensitive harvests. Sophisticated refrigeration and storage technology prolonging the life of harvested crops and novel use of gas technology to halt and accelerate ripening of picked fruit all mean less waste, more food on tables and at reasonable prices. We need to squeeze the most out our agricultural resources but do it in harmony with nature and so innovation needs to be driven constantly.
Crowdfunding was made possible by the ubiquity of the internet and social media. It may have brought us glow in the dark plants, the immensely popular 3D doodler and the home office 3D printer and is about to bring single serving, new latitude grown, aluminium (recyclable) canned wine to the UK. It's hoped that this will help reduce the immense waste of 500 million litres of the bottled stuff we throw away each year. It might be fair to say we are currently witnessing a Golden Age of Innovation and it's not about to stop.
FieldCoin will introduce crowdfunding for agribusiness innovation. I have my dream which knits together lots of different innovative ideas but out there must be some amazing ideas on drawing boards, laptops and in people's minds, which will help us adapt to future climate change and the needs of an ever a growing, urbanised population who demand, (& deserve) healthy nutritious food in an all seasons cornucopia. I'm a big fan of seasonal eating but Bananas don't grow in England any season. Fieldcoin will form a community of like minded and sector specific agribusiness investors to bring new innovation to the market.
Unlike a lot of cryptocurrencies which briefly soar then crash, perhaps never to recover their value, Fieldcoin will guarantee an 80% ratio of on the value of the token to the assets (land portfolio) and the ability to claim your token assets in physical property at certain rates under the market price. That makes for a safer long term investment and one that will attract crypto investors, seeking to diversify into less volatile market conditions. If the price of the market cap of fieldcoin falls below 80% of the total ecosystem's asset value, token holders will be credited against future purchases. To ensure it's a fair and accurate process, external auditors will be used to regularly re-evaluate the portfolio asset's total value. In a bid for transparency, all results will be publicly available to members of the fieldcoin community.
Invest in the next agribusiness revolution to find the systems, techniques, patents and (new approaches to controlled climate indoor farming) via the fieldcoin ecosystem. Get your capital back and be rewarded in fieldcoin tokens. A bonus for being part of a system with closely allied interests. You can be a part of the future where new systems ensure that the highest quality in standards are upheld, waste is minimised and the heavy reliance on chemical pesticides and fertilisers can be potentially reduced. It's a system with unlimited potential and one which could discover as yet undeveloped breakthroughs in the way we produce our food with life changing consequences for millions of people all over the world who still go hungry each day.
Fieldcoin's innovative ecosystem offers unique opportunities with blockchain application. As an investor you will be able to search and select from a wide variety of available land, send a simple application for approval and quickly become a landowner or a renter.
Fieldcoin will also manage your land for you if you wish to be a passive investor, in the same way that many landlords use an estate agent to manage their properties. Fieldcoin will be able to keep fees to a minimum using blockchain technology to manage your land portfolio. Avoiding a heavy footprint in every region where land is owned in the portfolio, (with associated high costs) fieldcoin will build up it's international network through the ecosystem while you enjoy the benefits of being a landowner. It's a neat model and one which can scale.
Fieldcoin's marketplace will ensure that you can rent or pay your land online using cryptocurrency and from anywhere. This is revolutionary model and one that no doubt will become a popular diversification option for the international investor and crypto community. It will bring siesmic shifts to agricultural practices and may lead the way to more competition in an industry dominated by huge corporations. It may also inspire (by simplifying the process) agro-entrepreneur business teams to try out new ideas like Henry & Alex, the Uncommon Wine guys who are pioneering producing English (new latitude wines, sold in single serving aluminium cans) and while they are currently crowdfunding to expand their business, perhaps they may be able to crowdfund via fieldcoin to rent or buy their own vineyards, not just the surprisingly good English grapes. Climate change means the South of England now has the same climate Champagne in France had, (many years ago) when French Champagne ruled supreme.
Like all ambitious and well thought out projects, the foundation aims to tackle endemic problems which can be solved by well funded thinking, creativity and a network of expertise. The fieldcoin foundation will endeavour to help people access the basic needs of clean water and electricity, improve basic infrastructure like upgrades to road networks and promote employment locally by agricultural education. Initiatives show that where infrastructure and basic resources are improved and education is made available, communities can thrive and generate their own local wealth and wellbeing. This is not to be underestimated. The old adage, “give a person a fish, feed them for a day, teach a person to fish, feed them and their family for the rest of their lives could not be more relevant in today's rapidly urbanising world.
The ICO will allocated 60% of the token for acquiring the land portfolio, there will be a 15% budget for developing agribusiness and a 1% social & rural development fun. The remaining tokens will go to legal, IT and marketing with a 1% reserve.
The ICO distribution will be (60% ICO) & includes 10% as token bonus, 2% bounty & 2% private sale and 9% for the team with 17% held in reserve
Fieldcoin's rollout includes a 10 step plan to bring the marketplace to fruition. After launching the ICO Fieldcoin will exchange ETH collected against Fiat currencies. Token holders can trade on exchange if they so wish. Fieldcoin Ent. then acquires a land portfolio. Fieldcoin will valorise (ascribe a value) to the properties which can then be traded on the platform. Users can send tokens to trade physical land and crowdfund agribusiness. Token holders send tokens to fieldcoin against land property deeds. New landowners have the (attractive) option of allowing Fielcoin to manage their land. Received tokens are then traded into ETH and fiat currencies.
The Core Team led by CEO Marc Couzic - Masters degree in Agro-Business and a former commodities trader, contains a a wide range of experience in the crypto and trading sectors. Mamadou Konaté their Chief legal Officer is an Attorney at Law, Jani Viellard, Acquisition Manager is also a former trader with experience in commodities, real estate, food and mining, their Marketing Manager Jeremie Joncas, is a trader, writer, producer and entrepreneur.
Supported by an experience and dynamic support component and team of advisors includes marketing expert Rayane Hocine & Enviromental advisor, Elizabeth Waddington.
this article is written as an endorsement of fieldcoin as a project which the writer has an active interest in. I advise all investors to conduct their own research, conduct their own due diligence and not rely solely on the advice of others. Remember investments can go up as well as down and the Blockchain Revolution will change the world.
