The blockchain is here. We hear about it every day but besides the famous cryptocurrencies, who uses it? Some say that it is something that interests technology providers rather than the market itself; others grasp the real disruptive potential which is the decentralization of any kind of system. Some are looking at its potential in managing information, others see it as a new way to protect the privacy, or for applications with a social impact. Then, there are start-ups which in many cases would find the blockchain infrastructure a useful tool on which they can develop services, distribute products and implement technologies.
In order to make this happen, it is necessary to have a blockchain infrastructure that is open source, easily applied and that can be used without restrictions. This now exists. This is the primary purpose of the Quadrans project, directed by the Quadrans Foundation: a non-profit organization established under the Swiss jurisdiction, created by the Italian entrepreneurs of Foodchain who have already proven that the blockchain can be used to successfully manage the food supply chain and promote transparency.
“The mission of the Foundation is to develop and support a new blockchain called Quadrans. It has unique features and specific functionalities compared to the blockchains known today such as Ethereum – explains Marco Vitale CEO of Foodchain and Chairman of the Foundation to Startupbusiness – a unique trait amongst all is the stable value of the Quadrans coin, the underlying cryptocurrency that is used as services enabler for the platform. All the resources are committed to research, development, and education with the purpose to bring the new decentralized protocol and its tools to the community, providing the developers of the world the necessary tools to create the next decentralized applications and together build a more accessible, open and transparent digital world”.
The project was born with the purpose to provide the infrastructure to anyone who wants to adopt blockchain. The value of the Quadrans coin increases according to the number of entities that use it for various applications, according to the mechanism tuned by the promoters of the Foundation. The non-volatile coin indeed does not mean that the participants of the project cannot see the value of their participation to the network increases, rather, the mechanism tuned by Quadrans Foundation allows operative stability on one hand, and an increase of the intrinsic value on the other, for the benefit of all the participants.
“After having considered various locations – says Vitale – we opted for Switzerland as we believe that at the moment this the most suitable environment for the setup of the Quadrans Foundation in terms of legal aspects and accessibility to the international market”. The Foundation is based in Mendrisio, in the Ticino Canton, but has already drawn the attention of other Cantons such as Schaffhausen.
The Foundation was born as a non-profit organization and resources and funds raised will be used to support the growth and the development of the blockchain infrastructure, the people and organizations involved in this project. This indeed refers to the use of blockchain technology in the industrial environment, with defined costs and without the fluctuation of the coin – said Vitale. Within the Foundation, we will conduct continuous research and development activities to enhance the Quadrans ecosystem and support the promotion of Quadrans blockchain infrastructure, bringing its value to the community”.
Today, the food-tech and food-related area are the most developed in terms of applicative opportunities which includes traceability, standards, certifications (i.e. Halal, Organic, Fair Trade, Kosher, etc.). In addition to food, the Quadrans Foundation aims to take on areas such as IoT, Industry 4.0, Fintech, Telecommunications, Digital ID and many other verticals of the industry.
“The involvement of academics and industrial partners is essential to develop and provide an open source platform that enables information sharing worldwide, the official launch of the Quadrans platform will be announced in early 2019”, says Vitale. It shall be noted that the Quadrans network already exists, the first nodes have already been installed and announcements will be made to the blockchain community. It is also important to highlight that Quadrans has been designed to welcome anyone is currently using other blockchains such as Ethereum, without problems related to the integration.
