AGRICOIN (AGC) to create a new ecosystem for the agribusiness and related industries by incorporating customized smart farming practices, the internet of things, and limitless possibility of other blockchain technologies related to the industry ACCELERATE FARMING ECOSYSTEM WHITE PAPER
Table of Contents Executive Summary... 2 Introduction... 2 Rationale... 2 Agricoin Positioning... 4 Agricoin Project Goals... 5 Technology Roadmap... 7 Distribution Stage... 7 Further Development Stage... 8 Use Cases... 8 Distribution and Balances... 9 October 2017... 10 November 2017... 10 December 2017... 10 January 2018... 10 February 2018... 10 Conclusion... 11 Contacts... 11 1
Executive Summary This Agricoin (AGC) whitepaper aims at conveying an innovative concept and framework for reorganizing the payment and financing mechanism in the agricultural world. By utilizing recent technological innovations, we propose a new model to simplify and improve the ecosystem at once. Through creating and implementing a blockchainbased cryptocurrency, Agricoin (AGC) promotes secure and fast payment solution that accelerates the economy for the many based on agricultural reform. In addition to the current similar cryptocurrency platforms that already proven and well known, Agricoin (AGC) promotes further security, compatibility, and flexibility with other blockchain technologies such as the internet of things (IoT). Introduction We start from one philosophy that digital world must be able to help as many people to have more access and fairer deals in whatever they do. This means that there should be no central authorities to control the many for the benefit of a few parties. A decentralized network consists of peers that can run independently of each other. The power to transmit information is distributed among a network of servers, instead of being driven from one primary source. Our concept of networked agricultural ecosystems does not depend on any single entity. The idea is to have as many independent nodes participate into the network as possible so that the network will still run successfully even if some servers fail. A distributed ledger technology could enhance the relationship between farming businesses and consumers. Practical applications of blockchain technology in the agriculture sector also include minimizing unfair pricing, confirming product origins, and help with remittances to rural regions as well as other rural farming finance solutions. 2
In order to cater the needs to provide wider financial access and fairer deals among agricultural stakeholders, we come with comprehensive propositions that begin with a release of a cryptocurrency called Agricoin (AGC). Rationale The current cross border transactions among financial institutions which involving any kind of fiat currencies are mostly imposed with considerable transaction fees. Even for in-house transactions sometimes costs are applied by banks who hold our own money. Not to mention further that the traditional financial services carry considerable risks such as bouncing check, hijacking of funds and a number of other cyber-crime that continually threatening us. Despite today's electronically interconnected banking systems, remittance process is also unlikely to be done instantly and conveniently. The actual transfer process may take days as it probably rerouted painfully through a number of intermediary agents that draw some fees as well. Lowering the transaction costs and time is one thing. There is another major issue that holding up common Agricoin (AGC) is a cryptocurrency economic growth especially in grassroot level. As it getting more and with a purpose to support the growth of farming, plantation, aquaculture and more regulated, the financial the related ecosystems institutions are also become warier and stricter when granting loans to individuals including farmers. This phenomenon makes access to financing painstakingly difficult despite farmers possess a reasonable collateral namely the land plots. In difficult times, such as during crop failures, many farmers seek help to predatory lenders to start the next planting season or even simply to buy daily groceries to support their living. Publicly accessible blockchain-based credit scores based on actual land condition compared to previous credit history maybe the answer for such 3
deadlock. This open ledger may serve as risk profiling tool that makes financial institutions more confidence in lending their money. Agricoin (AGC) is a cryptocurrency with a purpose to support the growth of farming, plantation, aquaculture and the related ecosystems. This cryptocurrency act as transaction intermediary using blockchain-based technology. This digital money fulfills the required attributes such as decentralized and independent. No single authority can control the distribution mechanism including us as development team. The exchange rate is fully and solely determined by the market itself. Agricoin Positioning As a foundation to the ecosystem, we promote a synchronized environment among developers, miners, and stakeholders as a whole. Agricoin (AGC) is not only about technology but further we promote the contagious idea of fair and ethical business practice in agricultural industries. Miner Developer Stakeholders AGC Ecosystem 4
The real world application will bring Agricoin (AGC) to take the position as connecting infrastructure among agribusiness components such as farmers, farmer s cooperatives, financial institutions, warehousing and distribution systems, commodities marketplace, start-up communities and many more. Therefore, we built a more transparent yet secure and efficient ecosystem that will promote greater welfare for the many. We provide a cryptocurrency that is convenient, fast, secure, and rewarding. The users and related stakeholders will be free to send, spend, hold, invest or even to mine Agricoin (AGC). Warehousing & Distribution Chain Smart Farming with IoT BlockChain Blockchain-based Financial Institution Start-up Community Retail & Marketplace Agricoin Project Goals By 2050, about 10 billion of people will populate the planet earth. Food production in aggregate must be doubled in order to cope with the ever-increasing demand while arable land availability keep shrinking every year. Increasing the yield of farmers per square farming plot is the only way to catch this production gap. On the other hand, the tremendous growth must be environmental conscious at once by considering any related aspects so that the effort will be sustainable. Precision farming is a way to manage the agricultural production using a set of accurate digital measurements 5
obtained from field network of sensors connected altogether using the Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Agriculture is truly a cornerstone of every nation building. From a basic famine fighting efforts up to creating sophisticated sustainable yet precise agricultural systems are some of the goals behind improving farming baseline. Despite its critical position, farmers and most parts of agribusiness ecosystem only possess very limited bargaining power as they considered as auxiliary only in political decision making process. Inefficiencies in many nodes of agribusiness makes the situation even worse for those in the bottom of the pyramid namely the farmers. Typically, in traditional systems, when a business processes a credit card transaction 90 % of them are will be received within seven days. However, the remaining 10 % could take up to six months after the transaction date. This process is known as a rolling reserve which will not make any sense for farmers who need to prepare some capital for next planting seasons every three months or even less. Unless they have abundant reserved money in their pocket, the rolling reserve mechanism of traditional payment system will make farmers struggle even to simply buy seeds or fertilizers. About 40% of global workforce is related to agriculture but very few improvement has yet done in this sector despite its strategic function. Many farmers around the world are unaware of fair trade practices that they could be implementing to earn a higher wage. Agricoin (AGC) promotes growth acceleration by combining the efficiency of cryptocurrency and the precision of blockchain based internet of things (IoT) Coffee, for example, is one of the most highly traded commodities in the world, yet the farmers who grow it typically earn less than $2 a day. Blockchain as the underlying technology for Agricoin (AGC) cryptocurrency and also blockchain as verification method for product certification could help to alleviate this gap that prohibit fair trade practice between farmers and markets nowadays. 6
By combining the power of precision agriculture and the efficiency of cryptocurrency transactions, Agricoin(AGC) offers the following propositions as its goal: Developing new ecosystem in agribusiness Simplify the transaction process for commodities trade in between farmers, industry, start-up communities, and market. Minimize transaction fees and remittance costs that currently occur in traditional financial institutions. Promote growth acceleration by combining the efficiency of cryptocurrency and the precision of blockchain based internet of things (IoT). Limitless and borderless transaction for farming commodities. Technology Roadmap There are two major steps on our technology roadmap which are the first stage called distribution and the further development stage. Distribution Stage Initial Distribution Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Listed to Cryptosurf Faucet Price Determination I Market entry Price Determination II Partnership with Exchanges 7
Further Development Stage Development Development Development Development Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV Coopertaion Marketplace Develop Partnership with Farmers collabotation Agricoin with online Food & Beverage Industry Financial Institutions (AGC) payment gateway shops Brick and mortar retail Collaboration with Farming Start-up Use Cases Our long-term goal is to be the catalyst of agricultural growth across the globe and the growth will only bring maximum advantage if it is sustainable. In other words, our mission is to form a fully-featured ecosystem, bringing together all economic agents (sellers, buyers, banks, insurance and logistics companies, farmer's market, start-up communities, etc.) into a single transaction platform. Monitoring the food supply chain so that consumers can get a better idea of where the food is coming from, the date when it was created, and how it was produced more efficiently is one of the advantages we are going to bring up here. Rather than depend on the inefficient labeling system which can be easily manipulated, consumers could rely on a transparent immutable ledger of account detailing everything about the food they purchase namely the blockchain. Agricoin (AGC) combined with respective blockchain technology can provide a reliable yet simple digital stamping for food labeling effort. 8
Practically, these are some examples of use cases which suitable with Agricoin (AGC) ideas: Farmer s lending platforms for seeds and fertilizers Start-up farming management platform Fair trade between farmers and the end user market As remittance agent for cross-border agricultural trade. A single world market where there is price discrepancy due to foreign exchange difference. Distribution and Balances Our aim is not merely to simply having a coin and launching ICO as soon as possible but we are offering a fair distribution table that will benefit all stakeholders in the long run. The following is the distribution table of Agricoin (AGC). The Distribution of Agricoin (AGC) Type : Proof-of-Works (PoW) Algorithm : SCRYPT Total Supply : 466,656,250 Pre-mine Distribution : 41,000,000 (8%) ICO (Market Join Fee) : 24,600,000 (60% from Pre-Mine) Bounty Programs : 12,300,000 (30% from Pre-Mine) DEV : 4,100,000 (10% from Pre-Mine) 9
From the above distribution table, we break down further definite steps so that the development of this cryptocurrency will be easy to follow by the market. October 2017 Technical assessment already performed for Agricoin (AGC) hence we can take further steps to develop this coin and make it ready to market soon. November 2017 Presale of Agricoin (AGC) based on the interest of investors. Token will be distributed among the visionaries and enthusiasts who understand the need for implementation of the blockchain technology to the basic needs of society namely agriculture. December 2017 Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to public January 2018 Other financial institutions integrations to integrate our vision in which Agricoin (AGC) become total solution for accelerating the farming ecosystem. February 2018 Other blockchain-based IoT integration to make Agricoin (AGC) developed full scale in maturity and serving well the agriculture community. 10
Conclusion Traditional payment and financing systems are inefficient as it involves many nodes to confirm transactions and to evaluate credit score. Secured decentralized ledger combined with the internet of things based credit profiling could change the way we look into the payment and financing world. Blockchain as distributed ledger has now become the elemental component of secured decentralized digital money called cryptocurrency. Even further the blockchain technology has the power to change the way we handle data in many fields including agriculture. Agricoin (AGC) is a cryptocurrency that purposely designed to support the entire agribusiness ecosystem. We aim to change the landscape of the current agriculture business ecosystem to become more trustworthy, equal, and efficient at once by employing not only the cryptocurrency itself but also other blockchain technologies and the internet of things (IoT). Contacts <for further development> Agricoin Developer, info@agricoin.asia <for further development> 11