September 2019 saw the kick-off of the Demeter IoT project. A lot happened in other projects involving the OriginTrail protocol, as well. The core development team came out with the new protocol release 2.0.59 and we openly shared tech updates with the community in the AMA. We announced new plans and interim leadership for the Trace Alliance as well as some strong updates for the following months. The key mission remains to set strong foundations for the global adoption of the open-source OriginTrail protocol.

DEMETER Project Kick-Off

Trace Labs, the core development company of the OriginTrail protocol, is part of the DEMETER project, which is managed by the Waterford Institute of Technology. This project is building an interoperable, data-driven, innovative and sustainable European agri-food sector. It is a large-scale deployment of farmer-centric, interoperable, smart farming, IoT-based platforms delivered through a series of 20 pilots across 18 countries. Involving 60 partners and funded by the European Commission in the amount of EUR 15 million, DEMETER adopts a multi-actor approach across the value chain (demand and supply), with 25 deployment sites, 6,000 farmers and over 38,000 devices and sensors being deployed. Participants come from a variety of production sectors (dairy, meat, vegetables, fruit and arable crops), production systems (conventional and organic) and farm sizes and types. DEMETER optimizes data analysis obtained across multiple farms. The kick-off event was in September 2019 in Waterford, Ireland. Activities on the work packages already started and the project is an excellent setting to showcase the benefits of the OriginTrail protocol for trusted data exchange in connection with IoT devices and data.

Blockchers Project Announcement

In September, we were excited to announce another Europe-wide program: Blockchers, which supports blockchain use cases for small and medium enterprises all over Europe. Trace Labs is part of the program with a project for an agricultural cooperative. The project plans to use the OriginTrail protocol to automate and streamline core processes and incentivize sustainable farmers by using a public blockchain with built-in transparency and integrity. Here is more about this project.

Tech Update: AMA and New Release

We always love to involve the community in the project, so we are regularly hosting AMAs and other activities to help you get up to speed with everything happening in the OriginTrail ecosystem.

In September, the AMA was devoted to tech and hosted by co-founder & CTO Branimir Rakić. Here’s a short recap:

The team has done a lot of testing and pilots with organizations using the protocol. The development is driven by market needs.

The central focus is on upgrading the data layer. Some features that were initially planned for further on in the future, like the Gemini stage (one stage beyond Freedom), will be implemented earlier. We are reprioritizing to ease the adoption of the protocol. The Gemini-Freedom Data Layer in the next major release of the OT node for the ODN mainnet will include extended support for more use cases and data set types; the possibility to convert datasets between different formats; an increased capacity to process more supply chain events (with fewer hardware requirements); and easier data integration and application development with the updated API. The updated roadmap will be published soon.

Once the protocol node software is updated, Houston and documentation updates will follow, as well.

The CTO did a live demo of the new node with the newly developed features in a local network.

The team created “OT-JSON,” an abstract data format on the protocol level, which is a representation of the graph and helps with the conversion of datasets between different formats. One of the main features is the dataset connector, an updated (and more cryptographically secure) way to validate events between multiple parties.

Branimir answered loads of questions from reddit, beginning with the most upvoted ones.

The team got in touch with bbnm, the founder of OTHub, and is in the process of bringing OTHub back up. Huge shout out to that awesome project!

We are working on a new website for the OriginTrail ecosystem that will have a dedicated section for the community. Community projects such as OTHub and other community activities will get additional exposure within the OriginTrail ecosystem.

New APIs are being prepared in Swagger (a live walkthrough was part of the AMA).

Replay the AMA. Head over to YouTube for timestamps:

In addition, the development team’s short-term focus was on node release v2.0.59. It introduced dynamic gas pricing, which reduces cost and waiting time for the confirmation of blockchain transactions.

Trace Alliance: New Interim Chairman and Bold Plans for the Future

Trace Alliance, the inclusiveness pillar of the OriginTrail ecosystem, is taking on a new challenge in the following months, transitioning towards becoming a formally established non-profit organization. It will continue on its path to ensure product integrity in all stages of the product life cycle. As an industry-led organization, it will serve as a unified voice to contribute to the governance of relevant ecosystems — OriginTrail, Ethereum, Hyperledger and others. We were happy to announce the new Interim Chairman Andrej Muževič and Interim General Secretary Ana Bevc, who will ensure the foundation of the new phase is properly set.

Read more about the plans here.

Communications & Events Highlights

Team members were present at various events in September and our work was featured in relevant media.

Some highlights from September:

How can walled gardens be tackled and help enterprises create more value out of data? Co-founder Tomaž Levak gave an interview to Angie Lau in a podcast for Forkast News.

Our co-founder Žiga Drev took part in the NGI Forum 2019 in Helsinki. This year’s discussion was focused on reshaping the internet through collective and networked intelligence.

OriginTrail’s co-founder Žiga Drev at the NGI Forum 2019

As a part of the SmartAgriHubs project, Žiga also visited Bulgaria and was a jury member at the AgriFoodTech hackathon.

Co-founder and CTO Branimir Rakić joined the Digital Supply Chain Institute’s event in Belgrade, Serbia.

We were honored to be nominated for the Disruptor Daily’s Blockchain In Supply Chain Management Use Case Award! Voting is now open to the public, so you can help OriginTrail win. You can still vote here.

Other very strong opportunities are just around the corner:

At the end of October, co-founder Žiga Drev will speak at the World Crypto Conference in Las Vegas, USA. The conference is part of Vegas Blockchain Week, which has a stellar speaker lineup.

At the same time, co-founder Tomaž Levak will take part in a panel at the IoT Solutions World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the world’s largest IoT gathering. At the panel, he will be joined by leaders from Carrefour, Bureau Veritas, and others.

Tomaž will also fly to the USA to speak at the Blockchain Technology Summit at the University of California, Irvine — a highly expert event with professionals from Deloitte, SAP, FedEx, Oracle, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and many more.

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