Blockchain technology is gradually making its way into a lot of industries nowadays and agriculture is no exception. There are hundreds of startups that are working on launching a proof of concept project, a mobile-first provider of software services, Task recently introduced software that can remit payments across borders with the use of blockchain technology. Even though it is a trial project, it highlights that the Stellar blockchain is fully capable of increasing sustainability in real-life farming models. An open-source decentralized technology, Stellar is for connecting payment systems, banks and people.
The platform was primarily developed for facilitating fast, low-cost and secure cross-border transactions. Stellar had been founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb, a former Ripple’s co-founder, and Joyce Kim, and had received the support of the non-profit Stellar Development Foundation. As far as Task is concerned, it allows users to develop initiatives on the platform and then set credits, such as stabelcoins on the wallet of the project. Once the initiative has been added, the program manager will outline the activities that will be tracked. This tracking would include requiring certain images or documents to show that a specific task has been completed. After the assigned task is finished by the remote team and they have submitted proof of concept, their wallets are immediately credited by the Task portal.
Task had invited a program manager based in the United Kingdom for carrying out the project, as he has farming communities in Thailand. The Stellar blockchain was used for the development of the farming project, which enables funds to be remitted at a considerably improved speed of less than five seconds and charges a very low fee that’s set at $0.00002. Chief executive and founder of Task, Steve Walker talked about the selection of the company on Stellar. The CEO said that one of the reasons for opting for the Stellar technology was the focus of the platform on cross-border payments at low costs.
Generally, Stellar has been established for making fiat money more useful and accessible. Moreover, with Task payments done in the form of stablecoins, it can be helpful in controlling the volatile aspect of crypto coins. As of now, the Task platform is currently providing support for the USDX token by AnchorUSD, the USDC token by Circle Internet Financial and BRLT stablecoins. In the trial project, Task had allowed the administrator to create an initiative for the purpose of incentivizing Biochar production.
In addition, support for local dialects was offered by the company, which allows farmers who are less tech savvy to be able to communicate smoothly with the platform. Once the Biochar is produced, the farmer can easily upload the images and the documents on the Task platform as evidence. Once the evidence has been received by the platform, the administrator releases the payment to the farmer. The system has been designed to be simple, so it can carry all farmers along. This is a great example of how blockchain technology can transform the agricultural sector.
