Coffee, it is hard to refuse the fantastic beverage, even blockchain technology can’t say no to it. Bext360, a Denver, Colorado based company has implemented distributed ledger technology and artificial intelligence to upgrade the coffee supply chain. The technology platform combined with a Coinstar like hardware is capable of sorting the coffee beans and tracking its movement along the supply chain. At the same time, it can also issue payouts to the coffee growers instantly.
The company, founded by Dan Jones aims to make use of technology to improve upstream supply chains of key commodities to enhance the lives of the community responsible for producing them. Categorized as an agritech startup, Bext360 has already raised $1.2 million in venture funding to release the first product targeting coffee growers.
According to reports, the platform utilizes machine vision and artificial intelligence to sift through each coffee bean fed into it and separate them into three grades — Grade A, Grade B and Grade C. The proportion of different grades will decide the payouts to the farmers. The Bext360 coffee grading machine is capable of processing 30 kilograms of coffee cherries at a time, and once it’s processed, producers can choose to receive payouts on the spot. The payouts will be made in the form of digital currencies over Stellar protocol.
At the same time, the platform also allows processing plants, distributors and wholesalers and other stakeholders in the supply chain to make use of the traceability feature. This will allow the end customers to know where the product originated from and its movement through the supply chain. Bext360 offers RESTful APIs that can be integrated into wholesaler or retailer marketing and loyalty programs to make relevant data accessible to end customers.
Jones, on one of the leading business magazines, states that the Bext360 system is a huge step towards upgrading the age-old payment process in the coffee industry that dates back to the 1940s or 1950s. The coffee producers using Bext360’s sorting machine have an option to decline on-the-spot payment and choose to sell it in the commodities market.
The sorting machine by itself is a unique achievement by Bext360, and there is a potential to replicate the model to other agricultural products in the near future.
Ref: Forbes | Image: NewsBTC
