​Hemp Blockchain Selects Algorand As Its Blockchain Platform

The Hemp Blockchain Inc. seeks to "leapfrog" existing solutions in an agriculture sector with significant growth prospects that is strategically important for multiple reasons, including agricultural sustainability, carbon sequestration and the rapidly increasing need for carbon offset credits.

Algorand Inc. built the world's first open source, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol for the next generation of financial products. This blockchain, the Algorand protocol, is the brainchild of Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali. Algorand is a leader in proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms used to validate transactions on blockchain networks. Among the advantages of proof-of-stake over proof-of-work, the other major blockchain consensus mechanism, are its scalability and energy efficiency, as it does not utilize competing high resource consuming "miners" to validate transactions. As a result, Algorand is a natural choice for companies such as The Hemp Blockchain dedicated to helping to achieve a net-zero carbon future.

Industrial hemp is a rapidly growing industry driven by a separate crop from its biological relatives that produce THC-based cannabis products as it contains less than 0.3% THC by dry weight. Industrial hemp can be processed into over 50,000 uses, including fuels, plastics, graphene, solvents, building materials, foods, and medicines, and is also a powerful tool in the global effort to combat climate change because an acre of hemp can potentially sequester as much or more carbon as an acre of rainforest.

Currently, the industrial hemp supply chain is in a state of disarray. It is characterized by opacity, fragmentation, lack of reliable payment systems, the inability to verify "real" buyers and sellers, and the inability to reliably and consistently verify seed genetics for product provenance and quality according to federal and state regulatory requirements. Owing to its relative immaturity, the industrial hemp industry is underserved by a supply-chain solution targeting its needs, creating favorable conditions for market entry and long-term success of a modern, industry-focused solution that is blockchain-native. Furthermore, by introducing a streamlined carbon offset credit marketplace that includes a reliable token to mediate commerce, The Hemp Blockchain will offer value well beyond that of traditional approaches.

"We are partnering with world-class technology firms and domain experts to help build and support our platform while giving us the ability to scale and operate globally," said Dan Higbee, President and CEO of The Hemp Blockchain, Inc. "Technology serves its highest purpose when it materially improves the lives of people. The Hemp Blockchain will provide a trusted digital infrastructure that benefits not only those that grow and process hemp, but also consumers of its vast array of end products, and perhaps most importantly, the planet as a whole by accelerating carbon sequestration. Industrial Hemp farmers can literally grow Carbon credits from the earth, for the earth . . . with The Hemp Blockchain and The Carbon Protocol."

"We are excited about the continued expansion of the community building on Algorand and welcome The Hemp Blockchain to the Algorand ecosystem. We have been focused since the beginning on creating the most advanced technology that will allow organizations at the forefront of technology adoption, like The Hemp Blockchain, to build and deploy new blockchain-based applications that will remove friction from legacy business models," said David Markley, Director Business Solutions at Algorand.