Image By Hubertl -CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Okay, so here's my half baked idea.
Grow saffron, hydroponically, and fund the growing with a block chain based saffron-value-tied, altcoin.
I've been keeping an eye on Freight Farm's Leafy Green Machine. They're a freight container based hydroponics system that allows you to grow almost anything almost anywhere. Why not grow the most valuable plant (that I'm aware of), saffron! Saffron is worth at least $500 a pound.
Now the difficult part. Financing. Ugh. We're talking $85,000 just for the Leafy Green Machine let alone the crocus starter bulbs, nutrients, electricity, and labor costs.
Why not make an alt-coin that would be tied to the price that you would be selling the saffron, for?! You would need to break down the cost of the whole system including nutrients, electricity, bulbs, shipping costs, and then add a percentage profit to cover labor (hopefully just your own). Each coin would be redeemable for an ounce of saffron.
Forgive me, I am very ignorant still of how some of these altcoins work, but my idea would be that the mining process would directly mine Monero of the value of the ounce of saffron. This amount of Monero mined, would fluctuate (via difficulty?) with the costs of doing business, the value of Monero. The Monero would go to the grower to finance his growing, and the Saffron-Coin would go to the miner. They could use the coin as any other altcoin by trading or holding for investment. They would also be able to, in time, trade it directly for an ounce of saffron.
Once the saffron grower receives the Saffron-Coin in exchange for Saffron, he could "burn" the coin to balance the market, encourage further mining, and make sure that one Saffron-Coin was truly worth only one ounce of Saffron.
The grower would also be able to sell to anyone, including those who would not be purchasing with Saffron-Coin, but he would also need to be careful that a large order could come in for a saffron purchased with the Saffron-Coin. It's very unlikely that all of the Saffron-Coins would be redeemed for actual saffron as there would more the likely always be someone mining and someone holding or trading for investment purposes.
I'm guessing I've completely overlooked some major things, but I really wanted to get my thoughts down. Obviously the biggest issue is doing all of this legally in most countries. What's nice about those Freight Farms is that you could do this on the cheapest piece of land that has the cheapest electrical costs and lowest taxes, and not worry too much about the quality or location of the land.
I'm also not sure what to do if another grower comes along and starts selling their saffron for less than one Saffron-Coin.
Is this feasible? What do you all think?
