How can new technologies help us have better chocolate?
Despite its importance for chocolate making; Cacao and Cacao agriculture has not changed much since the last century. Most of us are aware of the challenges that climate change and dryer/warmer weather conditions pose for cacao cultivation.
However, little is known about the threatened subvarieties of ancestral cacaos that can be found in Venezuela. Patanemo is one of these ancestral cacaos . Regularly we talk about this topic in our blog and our presentations. It is a real challenge for the world and for chocolate lovers to preserve ancestral cacaos from Venezuela. It is said that by year 2050 Cacao may disappear or become a GMO (all cacaos tasting the same coming from genetically modified crops)
At Cacaoshares we dream of becoming a movement that helps disseminate these ancestral varieties all over the appropriate climates for it. Keeping chocolate pure and authentic, diverse and natural within its original environment
Quite a simple idea: More and more trees: Grown within the Rainforest
Our movement, Cacaoshares, hopes to create awareness on Cacao preservation and better chocolate. This is why we created the first Cacao based Token in The world, the ERC20 (Ethereum Network) Cacaoshares and more recently we started curating (or minting) NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) That are blockchain stored digital art creations soulbound to bean to bar chocolate
Sounds interesting, but it is all about creating bundles of unique things: digital art, bean to bar chocolate and writing its “authenticity certificate” in the blockchain
Three strategies: NFTs, Crypto Bonds and Chocolate
- By buying items from our collection of NFTs clients will be contributing funds for us to continue our activities of research and reforestation in Venezuela
- By buying Crypto Bonds (CacaoShares ERC20) clients invest in Cacao trees and receive returns from it
- By buying chocolate from our limited edition clients donate 1 new seedling to Patanemo
Better for the people and better for the earth
Sustainable cacao is a promise that members of the chocolate industry dream about. We think that leveraging existing technologies like the above NFTs and Crypto Bonds will help to fill gaps in quality and availability that sadly fuel injustices and unfairness in the chocolate industry.
For example, in Africa, it is easy to know the source and the price paid for a commodity once it arrives at a sourcing center (like a huge warehouse) , however little is known about it before that. It is nearly impossible to know if deforestation has occurred or what prices have been paid or which parties have been involved in the supply chain
For Cacao to be truly sustainable it needs to be produced and sourced with respect for the earth and for the people, paid fairly and with joy
The importance of The “First Mile” Traceability and its relevance to our blockchain initiatives
All of the above irregularities occur in the first mile, or the first kilometer. When the Cacao beans travel from the trees to the sourcing areas. The impactful “First mile” idea also tells us that it is hard to know what happens with the post harvesting or how was the people involved treated or what kind of harmful agrochemicals are applied at which levels of the agricultural process
Not only it is hard to acquire this information but also has many “inconvenient truths”
In our pilot work with Patanemo village we combine our own research with elements of storytelling. Striving for transparency and with the necessary financial support we think we can scale up and reach more productive units
What we expect for Patanemo from selling NFTs, CryptoBonds and Limited Edition Chocolates
As explained before we, Cacaoshares has three strategies to materialize our vision
1Bar for 1Tree Limited edition Chocolate: Delicately crafted bean to bar chocolates using Patanemo cacao and sold online in Japan. For each chocolate sold we will donate one cacao seedling to the cooperative of cacao growers of Patanemo
CryptoBonds: deployed on the Ethereum blockchain Cacaoshares CCS Token are yield bearing digital instruments that are equivalent to purchasing a Tree as a productive unit. Clients who buy Cacaoshares Cryptobonds from us are investing in cacao from Patanemo. The added benefit is that Cacaoshares are fully transferable and act as a store of value for up to the life of the tree
NFTs collection: are highly exclusive pieces of digital art soulbound to a chocolate creation and written in the blockchain. By buying NFTs our clients contribute to our research activities in Patanemo. Specifically the continuation of the improvement of post harvesting practices that we started last year 2021 with the Diploma on the field with the University of Central Venezuela
NFTs as a technology provide the foundation block for our future traceability program Traceability as a Service ®
Traceability as a Service® by CacaoShares
Using the same technology used to mint the NFTs that commonly are used for digital art creations we will provide our platform as a service for any cacao farmer or trader in the world to inexpensively create traceability tokens as proof of ownership for their lots, these “blockchain signed” lots can be fully traced, aggregated or disaggregated using a public ledger of the blockchain
With the use of the same crypto wallets that are ubiquitous and are already familiar to millions of users they can simply visit our website and mint their own certificates of ownership inexpensively
These certificates can be validated signed authentic by the blockchain signature of Cacaoshares and affixed digitally with a blockchain stored survey report that can be ordered as an extra service