Blockchain Based Coffee: E-marketplace For Coffee

India is the only country in the world where entire coffee is grown under shade, handpicked and sun dried. It produces one of the best coffees in the world, produced by small coffee growers, tribal farmers adjacent to National Parks and Wild Life Sanctuaries in the Western and Eastern Ghats, which are two of the major bio-diversity hot spots in the world. Indian coffee is highly valued in the world market and sold as premium coffees. The share of farmers in the final returns from coffee is very meagre.

• Blockchain technology was first outlined in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, two researchers who wanted to implement a system where document timestamps could not be tampered with. But it wasn’t until almost two decades later, with the launch of Bitcoin in January 2009, that blockchain had its first real-world application.
• A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree).
• By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data. It is “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way”.

• The stakeholder like coffee farmers, traders, coffee curers, exporters, rosters, importers and retailers register on the platform to make trade transactions.
• The coffee farmer registers credentials like place where coffee is grown, details of the crop, elevation, certificates if any and any relevant information.
• A block is created for each of the lot the farmer sells on the Blockchain.
• The credentials of the block/ lot will be stored on the Blockchain throughout its journey and are immutable.

• Blockchain based market place app for trading of Indian coffees is intended to bring in transparency in the trade of Indian coffee, maintain the traceability of Indian coffee from bean to cup so as the consumer tastes real Indian coffee and the grower is paid fairly for his coffee produced.
• This initiative will help in creating a brand image for Indian Coffee through traceability in reducing grower’s dependency on intermediaries by having a direct access to buyers for a fair price for their produce.
• It will also help in finding right coffee suppliers for exporters within the stipulated time to meet the growing demands and in building a better trust and long term relationship due to increased visibility towards the traceability and transparency of the produce.