In a transfer that would reshape the worldwide agricultural panorama, AgriDex is getting down to deliver the $2.7 trillion agricultural business onto the blockchain. On this unique CryptoSlate interview, Henry Duckworth, CEO and co-founder of AgriDex, unveils his imaginative and prescient for revolutionizing the way in which agricultural commodities are traded and tracked worldwide.
Contemporary off a $5 million pre-seed funding spherical, AgriDex is leveraging Solana’s high-speed, low-cost blockchain to tokenize crops and streamline agricultural transactions. With guarantees of 10-40% value financial savings per commerce and near-instant settlements, AgriDex goals to sort out long-standing points within the business, from opaque provide chains to excessive remittance charges.
Duckworth’s revolutionary method goes past mere digitization. By minting NFTs for every transaction, AgriDex creates an immutable report of essential knowledge factors, from product origin to transport particulars. This enhances transparency and aligns with stringent EU disclosure necessities, probably opening new markets for farmers worldwide.
On this interview, Duckworth shares insights into AgriDex’s strategic selections, its distinctive place available in the market, and the transformative potential of bringing real-world agricultural belongings on-chain.
How does AgriDex plan to revolutionize the worldwide agricultural business by tokenization?
Let’s delve into the present state of tokenization, which predominantly targets monetary belongings resembling treasury bonds and personal credit score, amongst numerous different monetary purposes. In 2023, the market measurement for world tokenized foreign money stands at simply over $17 billion, with tokenizable RWA belongings projected to be value $26 trillion by 2030.
Whereas these figures seem spectacular, the present RWA panorama continues to lack tangible, day by day utility past monetary markets — one thing that may be fastened by bringing agriculture on-chain.
AgriDex, a Solana-based real-world belongings (RWA) market has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding, to deliver the $2.7 trillion world agriculture business on-chain. AgriDex’s platform leverages blockchain know-how to tokenise agricultural commodities, facilitating the itemizing and shopping for of assorted crops on its market. As soon as a deal is finalised, it’s secured by minting an NFT that information all key transaction particulars.
We obtain on the spot settlements, excessive throughput and low charges because it’s constructed on Solana. Every transaction on AgriDex is represented by minting an NFT that completely preserves product, pricing, cost, and every other needed particulars. The Layer 1’s capacity to compress NFTs permits AgriDex to develop a scalable NFT-based provide chain resolution and ship value financial savings of 10-40% on every transaction.
What particular crops are presently being tokenized and traded on AgriDex’s Solana-based market?
We’re going to initially tokenize and listing agricultural commodities resembling sugar, grains, and olive oil to call only a few. The platform will help extra commodities sooner or later as now we have new companions and investments.
Might you elaborate on the method of minting a non-fungible token (NFT) to safe finalized offers on AgriDex?
The method entails creating an Order NFT that comprises complete data for world import and export requirements. This contains product data resembling documentation and certification to confirm product high quality, amount and origin. It additionally covers export particulars like packaging, labeling, and export necessities, together with transport progress updates, payments of lading, and insurance coverage certificates. Moreover, it contains import necessities for clearance and customs.
All transaction knowledge and related deal data are preserved inside the NFT, making it a legally binding doc signed by each the customer and vendor. This doc encompasses purchaser and vendor particulars, product specs, Incoterms, cost phrases, and needed transport, financing, and insurance coverage paperwork, together with product certifications
What units AgriDex aside within the tokenization of real-world belongings in comparison with different platforms?
IBM Belief and a number of other different massive establishments have tried to sort out this drawback. A part of their failure has been folks’s lack of belief of their place as potential rivals. What units Agridex aside is our complete understanding of the agricultural business and the best way to use know-how to repair it. We concentrate on utilizing blockchain to deal with real-world points, somewhat than simply using it to draw consideration to the mission.
For example, we’ve chosen to construct our market on Solana the place transaction charges are usually $0.005c or much less, in comparison with $8.90 for Ethereum and expensive percentage-based (6-10%) charges for worldwide remittance.
Moreover, the autonomous verification of paperwork and knowledge, resembling origin monitoring, has lengthy posed a problem in sustaining transparency and accountability all through the availability chain. We’re utilising blockchain know-how to successfully handle and resolve these points.
We help the disclosure of a lot of the 1100 knowledge factors required by the EU underneath the 2023 Sustainable Finance Disclosure Necessities, so it makes it simpler to farmer to promote their crops internationally.
Lastly, solely an web connection and a pockets are required to learn from AgriDex!
What motivated AgriDex to concentrate on the $2.7 trillion world agricultural business for tokenization?
The agriculture business, regardless of being valued at $2.7 trillion, is hampered by opaque and fragmented provide chains. These points end in excessive transaction prices, gradual settlement occasions, and a scarcity of transparency, resulting in inefficiencies and potential fraud. Farmers typically battle to obtain honest costs for his or her produce, whereas shoppers pay greater than needed. Remittances presently take 3-7 days to course of, with charges averaging 6% and typically reaching as much as 10% per commerce.
We goal to unravel a real-world drawback, and that’s the one manner any crypto narrative will go mainstream.
In what methods does AgriDex goal to contribute to the broader adoption of tokenization within the agricultural sector and past?
RWAs have continued to realize recognition and have been the second most worthwhile narrative within the crypto area throughout Q1 of 2024, in line with a latest report by CoinGecko. Moreover, the market cap is estimated to develop to $16 trillion by 2030 in line with Boston Consulting Group, highlighting the potential influence it’ll deliver to the worldwide monetary system.
Nevertheless, tokenization primarily targets monetary belongings like treasury bonds and personal credit score, with a 2023 market measurement of over $17 billion and tokenizable RWA belongings projected to succeed in $26 trillion by 2030, as I discussed. Regardless of these spectacular figures, the RWA panorama lacks day by day utility past monetary markets, a niche that may be addressed by integrating agriculture into the blockchain ecosystem.
