What partnerships have BeefLedger formed?

BeefLedger prides itself in helping lead cutting edge research into food systems and digital technologies, as part of this we have formed key partnerships with leading industry bodies such as the Food Agility and Future Food Systems. These are both funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government’s national Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) program and various university partners across Australia.

These partnerships are vital in assisting us with trialling proofs of concepts in the field and gauging industry feedback around our technology and solutions.

Food Agility

Food Agility is aimed at promoting the application of digital technologies to improving national agribusiness competitiveness and sustainability. BeefLedger is a Founding Industry Partner of Food Agility.

BeefLedger together with Food Agility were able to successfully land the first ever blockchain-credentialed shipment of Australian beef to China as a “proof of concept” initiative as part of a joint Export Smart Contracts project which focuses on the inter-relationships between the analogue supply chain (the ‘real world’ of beef cattle production, transformation, distribution and consumption), the digitalisation of its attributes and relationships to a blockchain architecture.

Our work with Food Agility and Queensland University of Technology was recognised with two Good Design Australia 2020 Awards.

The key elements of the project were:

1. Data Oracles, where our main concern was on the mechanisms needed for the validation of exogenous data and its sources. The application of ring signatures and zero knowledge proofs was a hot topic of discussion - we have for the time being focussed on deploying multisig protocols to deliver greater accountability in the access and consumption of exogenous data;

2. The Internet of Things layer (and related issues associated with the general idea of the relationships or mechanisms that ‘link’ the analogue and the digital realms). IOT and blockchain integration along the entirety of the supply chain was addressed, with specific use case opportunities to be rolled out to enable proof of concepts to be field tested. We have tested a wide suite of technologies from third parties, as well as developing our own RFID-Ethereum Integrated Scanner App; and

3. The blockchain state-change procedures and mechanisms per se. Here, we were interested in the interrelated issues of legal and economic matters in terms of compliance with export requirements and the design requirements to change incentive / disincentive dynamics impacting on the propensity for product substitution at the distribution function of the supply chain.

Future Food Systems

Future Food Systems was created to drive innovation and growth in the agrifood sector by accelerating adoption of STEM technologies and cluster approaches to industry development, resilience and sustainability.

BeefLedger is collaborating with Future Food Systems in a 36 month cross-border platform project aimed at exploring blockchain-based approaches to streamlining cross-border trade through the development of Smart Trade Hubs, and by working with food-buying groups across Australia and Asia.

This will be a multi-stage project that will develop the soft and hard digital infrastructure needed to support the growth of smart trade. The new infrastructure will complement the physical elements of regional export hubs and cultivate new approaches to digital value creation in light of current trends in consumer culture and communities.