Industry Specific Cryptocurrency

Victoria Davies
Element Zero
Published in
7 min readApr 8, 2019

How Element Zero’s Unique Stablecoin Creation Platform Solves Industry Specific Needs

While initial coin offerings and speculation drive the cryptocurrency news cycle, the future of digital currency will be defined by “industry specific cryptocurrency” or more pointedly, “the industry specific stablecoin”.

Stablecoins aren’t the thrill ride Bitcoin was a year ago because they are designed to be stable and cryptocurrency going forward is best suited to be viewed as a supplementary currency with inherent advantages to industries that traditional payment models simply can’t offer. Hence industry specific cryptocurrency should be seen as both money and a network of powerful tools, thanks to foundation it’s built on, the blockchain. Today’s siloed and centralized layers of middlemen (in all industries) can now be transformed to an open, horizontal and integrated ecosystem driving at-large industry efficiency — all within the blockchain.

Using the Element Zero open source algorithmic stablecoin creation platform any group such as a business, non-profit, community or even government can establish an customized or industry specific cryptocurrency, establishing their robust industry ecosystem in the blockchain, and be the vanguard of their business space. In doing so a business can effortlessly set specific prices for all their goods and services, regardless of country along with delivering a marketplace of value-added services serving the industry making up the ecosystem and embedded in the blockchain.

For example note how today’s fishery industries (fragmented with thousands of independent boat operators in every country) are made up of fishermen who return to port with their catch that then makes its way through layers of ‘middlemen” before arriving to restaurants and markets. A fisherman, as a seller, cannot negotiate favorable prices for themself mainly because; 1) they meet buyers (middlemen) one at a time and at different times; and 2). they cannot keep fish for a long time because the product is highly perishable.

This explains why most fishing communities do not build wealth over time, although they trade an important, necessary and every-day commodity. Their central disadvantage is upon returning to port most fishermen face a minimally competitive market, time pressure, and thus exploitation is high. Now imagine how a theoretical industry specific cryptocurrency ‘fish coin’ can be created coupled with an ecosystem of sellers, buyers, and value-added service providers (frozen food packers, shippers, etc) driving a more streamlined efficiency, with inventory notification, tracking, and payment velocity, “end to end”, from point of catch to the final destination. Leveraging the blockchain in this manner is happening today.

Bumble Bee Foods, the largest branded seafood company in North America is using blockchain to track the journey of yellowfin tuna from the Indonesian ocean to the dinner table. Customers will be able to access the complete timestamped history of each yellowfin tuna by scanning a QR code on the packaging and learn details including the size of the catch, point of capture and the fishing community that caught it. Bumble Bee Foods wants to start migrating all products to a blockchain-based system in 2019. Add to this the ability to drive commerce to a coin that is tailor made for the ecosystem’s needs, another advantageous removal of the middleman; in this case, banks and payment processors.

It’s worth also noting in addition to bypassing multiple global currencies an industry specific cryptocurrency is not affected by the market. Industries can cut out the middleman and set prices they feel are fair and competitive, without being constrained by potentially artificial market fluctuations. An example here would be with the thousands of independent coffee sellers around the world that now at the very best are involved in Direct Trade and Fair Trade exchanges. However even these exchanges are fraught with inequities and a theoretical industry specific cryptocurrency “coffee bean coin” would enable seamless and direct, peer-to-peer transactions around the world between buyers and sellers and supply could not be manipulated (suppressed or hoarded). This is also exactly what we’re seeing unfold with the industry specific cryptocurrency called “CoffeeCoin”.

By adopting or even creating an industry specific cryptocurrency, businesses can create an ecosystem within the blockchain and foster deeper engagement with customers, eliminate the friction and murky middleman frameworks — and grow the industry. Essentially a robust ecosystem can take root and grow on the Blockchain complete with feedback review loops, loyalty and rewards programs, industry insights and information and transparency. An industry specific cryptocurrency is a rising tide lifting all boats and helping to build all brands participating in the ecosystem. For example if you’re operating a local fish market not only are you buying directly from the fisherman responsible for the catch, accepting the theoretical “fish coin” from regional restaurants doing business with you is an easy way to associate yourself with fresh quality, a commitment to being the supplier of choice for fish, and value.

Let’s drill down on an example of an industry specific cryptocurrency, “Dentacoin”, with the objective of making the global dental industry more affordable. Developed by the Dentacoin Foundation and backed by dentists in Bulgaria, Canada, China, Germany, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the UK — this industry specific cryptocurrency can be used to receive dental care while also allowing people to earn additional Dentacoins by engaging with Dentacoin’s ecosystem embedded into the blockchain. Dentacoin is not just an industry specific cryptocurrency, it is a global dental services network which provides information sharing, both health and financial benefits. Dentacoin’s profit-sharing coop model isn’t much different than what private practices use in the medical industry. The Dentacoin Foundation claims it is accepted as a means of payment for dental services by more than 70 dental practices, labs, and suppliers in 17 countries, and is used by 870,000 people and more than 4,000 dentists.

Dentacoin illustrates how the real power of the industry specific cryptocurrency is its ecosystem built into the blockchain. Dentacoin showcases an incentive-based platform where participants are requested to offer honest feedback and reviews, and in lieu, they are rewarded with more Dentacoins. The Dentacoin blockchain includes DentaVox, an online market research platform with public results on a variety of dental health topics. The Dentacare App for Android and iOS lets kids and parents gamify brushing, flossing, and good oral care.

In sum, Dentacoins can be used to pay for treatment or buy dental products and fosters an environment to benefit patients, dentists, manufacturers, suppliers, labs, and insurance companies — the entire ecosystem of users and providers. Hence the goal of industry specific cryptocurrency is not to compete with other cryptocurrencies, but rather to provide global currency stability and drive industry growth through a blockchain. For Dentacoin this would include the safe storage and distribution of medical records, booking appointments, fighting counterfeit medicine, and tracking the supply chain. Blockchain technology offers the highest level of efficiency while automating data security.

All of this highlights the advantages of industry specific cryptocurrency in contrast to traditional payment methods as the power of the blockchain is unrivaled. In adopting an industry specific cryptocurrency the traditional “middleman” framework is dissolved placing authority back into the hands of the buyer and seller hands, protecting hard-won customer relationships and significantly reducing costs. This is facilitated with the establishment of smart contracts directly between sellers and buyers. Think of “smart contracts” as computer protocols in the blockchain that facilitate, verify, negotiate and conclude contracts between individuals and their contracting party. Tailored directly to the buyer’s needs, this smart contract solution streamlines industry spaces and removes the need for buyers to have middlemen. And that means reduced costs, increased margins and a simplified transactional experience.

Using the Element Zero Smart Contract System, any Element Zero stablecoin holder can create a private smart contract, with the added trust of the arbitration and escrow protocols, in just minutes. This may sound complicated but a simple way to think of the smart contract is knowing that only if all conditions are met can the transaction be successful. Hence with smart contracts, a string of events must take place and obligations fulfilled (such as a completion of a service) before the cryptocurrency can be transferred. Both parties enjoy granular transparency and you don’t need a middleman to verify that obligations are met. The smart contract is effectively, your middleman.

Element Zero is a not-for-profit next generation payment network and algorithmic stablecoin creation platform. The “stablecoin” is nonvolatile as a crypto asset but indeed digital currency, one that differs from the pervasive Bitcoin which is well known for its price volatility. A stablecoin however, provides price stability, protecting users from market volatility. The entirely new stability methodology, the Element Zero Stability Protocol, is designed to process a two-way transaction. On one side the sender can send a stablecoin to a receiver but on the other side the receiver must send back in return cryptocurrency, an invoice or receipt with same value as the stablecoin. In the event that the value of the exchange does not match, the smart contract steps in to balance the face value between the sender and the receiver by returning the extra value to whom it belongs. The two-way nature of the smart contract means that the Element Zero stablecoin cannot be traded speculatively, since it’s value is enforced.

Element Zero’s platform has been designed to be an open source solution that allows businesses, organizations and even governments to create their own stablecoin for free with their own industry-relevant features and with many more options that enhance the user experience while protecting their data, in contrast to today’s poorly retrofitted credit cards.

The future of cryptocurrencies lies in industry specific cryptocurrency for unique purposes and Element Zero enables businesses, organizations and even governments to create their own stablecoin — free of charge — based on a new stability methodology that completely eliminates the possibility for any volatility in the first place.

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