As healthy living fever sweeps the world, more people want to know exactly where the food on their plate has come from. Unfortunately, in the fishing industry there is a lot less regulation and seafood is often mis-sold and labelled incorrectly. Recently in the UK, Mark and Spencer came under fire for its Lochmuir salmon. The name implied it came from Lochmuir, but consumers soon discovered that the loch didn’t exist and that it was a fictional name. This misrepresentation has sparked a wave of consumerism whereby people want to be able to trace their food from farm to plate. Fishcoin enables this new consumer trend by putting each fish that is caught onto the blockchain, making it traceable to its point of origin.
Making Seafood Fresher
By putting seafood on a blockchain, Fishcoin can help consumers discover the true expiry date of the item in question, as well as verify its original source. Rather than seafood being carted around from market to market waiting to be sold, store owners can check the blockchain to discover incoming shipments and purchase the fish before it even lands ashore. This will hopefully speed up the delivery time of seafood and cut out illegal fishing activities. The Wuchang province in China is implementing a similar strategy for its famous Wuchang rice, to speed up delivery times and prevent it from being counterfeited during the delivery process.
Preventing Seafood Theft
Seafood might seem like a slightly odd thing to steal, but it can often fetch a high price – especially for rare seasonal fish. Globally, an estimated 700kg of seafood is stolen every second by fishermen that are looking to make a quick buck. By placing seafood on a blockchain, this stolen fish can be traced back to the vessel it was stolen from and the perpetrator can be dealt with.
In addition to catching seafood thieves, by reducing the amount of seafood being sold on the black market, it will help shore up the legitimate price for seafood, giving fishermen a fair wage for their work. Richemont is doing a similar thing with its diamonds. By using a blockchain, Richemont hopes to prevent its diamonds from going missing during transit as each diamond will be uniquely traceable.
Fishcoin is seeking to revolutionize the way we interact and deal with the seafood industry. By speeding up the delivery process and verifying origins of seafood, it gives consumers the power to only purchase legally sourced fish of the best quality. The world’s oceans are being overfished, so Fishcoin gives the remaining fish a chance to survive and thrive!
