From food to factories, the startup blockchain states that the digitalisation of resources can transform the world

A startup says that the tokenisation of resources represents the next big milestone for blockchain technology and is creating a platform that will allow individuals and companies to digitize objects in the real world.

According to IDA, its infrastructure helps solve a dilemma facing the world today: an effective link between physical and digital economies. The company says that the digitalisation of resources can help strengthen property rights, allow everyone to monitor resources and prevent waste and create a tamper-proof registry of transactions.

In its white paper, the company has exposed why this evolution is important. IDA argues that digitized goods will become "the new driver" of growth in the global economy, making it easier to move goods and allowing small and medium-sized businesses to receive the funding they need.

The IDA-based ecosystem based data will bring together emerging technologies for its blockchain of digitized assets, including artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), which is "promoting new sensor application applications to track and collect information from real objects. "

The benefits

The start says that the benefits for digitizing assets are far reaching. For industries, this could unlock new business models and foster innovation by allowing automation of production processes. The transport and autonomous vehicles sectors can benefit, in addition to the academic world and education, in which IDA states that "the digitalisation of intellectual resources has created a strong network effect for the sharing of knowledge". It can also have a positive effect at the table, as the digitization of agricultural products – a process already underway – has been seen to improve food security and improve the freshness of the products we buy in supermarkets.

Explaining why he chose blockchain technology to pursue digitization of assets, IDA says it lowers entry barriers for businesses and consumers – lowering costs and ensuring that the learning curve for ecosystem users does not be too steep. Blockchain also means that resources are easier to identify and track and remove geographical boundaries.

Two-level token

IDA has unveiled a two-level structure for tokens of its ecosystem. While the primary IDA token "works like the currency of the common platform and a bridge to the real world", secondary MRT tokens represent the digital asset anchored to physical assets, where the exchange of these tokens is equivalent to a change of ownership tangible assets they represent.

The startup has already provided an illustration of the MRT token in action. Imagine that an investment company owns timber rights for a forest section. The company would be able to issue MRT tokens for timber – and the recipients of these tokens would then have ownership rights over a certain amount of wood.

Over time, IDA expects the volume and variety of goods to be transformed as MRTs to grow. The company has made comparisons between this token and the US dollar, as both are designed to be isolated against direct market volatility – making them "an excellent safe haven for assets and stocks".

To prevent fraud, IDA claims to conduct due diligence investigations on asset holders wishing to convert their assets into MRT tokens. This implies ensuring that the number of tokens issued reflects the amount of activities or actions they have. MRT tokens are destroyed each time the tokens are redeemed for the resources they represent.

In October, IDA presented an important partnership with Sigfox, allowing the company to use its IoT applications, "easy to use and with global coverage". The company claims that Sigfox's technical support makes IDA unique and more powerful than other digitizations of asset platforms.