Noberasco is the first major Italian industry – an innovation leader as well as a market leader – to adopt blockchain. Entrusting its traceability records to the most incorruptible ‘digital notary’ so far in IT records, the public blockchain. Thanks to the system developed by
Wiise Chain
, which is interoperable with all software in use by any operator in the supply chain.
The result is open communication through a QR-code on the label that allows anyone to access data on the origin and routes followed by each batch with a smartphone. It starts with an innovative supply chain, that of 100% Italian peanuts. With a view to extending the application of the system, progressively, to other supply chains where Noberasco works closely with primary agricultural production, in the various geographical areas.
Public blockchain, as it turns out, is the main way to ensure transparency, integrity and sustainability in agrifood supply chains.
Blockchain, Wiise Chain
The Wiise Chain system is based on open-source tools, the BitCoin protocol (see next section) and the OpenTimeStamps system. Which make it possible to digitally record and notarize, at an extraordinarily low cost, every data and document of interest to operators, their business interlocutors, inspection and certification authorities, and consumers. As of:
– identity and geolocation of operators and individual commodities,
– Material flow traceability and mass balances,
– Environmental analysis, on raw materials and products,
– audit reports of certification bodies, etc.
The modular approach allows additional items to be added in progression. In that logic of continuous improvement that is characteristic of quality management systems and is now oriented toward sustainable procurement. And so it is that the most responsible organizations, which Noberasco includes, already apply and audit their adherence to the ISO 20400:2017 guidelines (
Sustainable Procurement – guidance
).
Digital notary for all
The ‘digital notary’ was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto (unknown genius, under a pseudonym), by release of open-source software that allows indelibly recording encrypted information. BitCoin protocol, which underlies the cryptocurrency of the same name as well as the public blockchain. Cryptograms are authenticated and decentralized at a network of more than 16 million servers, which guarantee their preservation and inviolability. And it is in fact the only technology ever hacked by hackers that is known.
Information and documents are entered into the system, h24, in encrypted form. While access to ‘unencrypted’ news is defined, by whoever posts it, in relation to the needs of the various categories of users (within the individual organization, the supply chain, the social partners involved). The interaction of this system with others already developed (e.g., electronic signature) and under development (IoT, Internet of Things) thus represents the horizon of agriculture and animal husbandry 4.0, and beyond.
Supply chain goals
The 100% Italian peanut supply chain, designed and tracked in Wiise Chain by Noberasco, is only the beginning of a journey (which can be accessed on this page). A path that is based on safety, quality and sustainability of production. Based on objective and inviolable data-‘printed in stone’ (IT) by the individuals and the legal entities that enter them-which the system in turn verifies through cross-checks.
The immediate goal of this system is to provide incontrovertible assurance of the authenticity and actual values of the productions. The risk of fraud is effectively reduced to zero, for example, to the extent that data on historical and seasonal crop yields are introduced and reconciled with yields. The broader goal, therefore, is for increasingly widespread application of this technology, including by microenterprises and especially in the organic sector, to which Wiise Chain has in fact dedicated a call at a laughable cost. So that value can be truly distributed, from those who cultivate to those who consume.
Dario Dongo
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
