Brazilian agency BVRio uses Ethereum ledger technology to combat illegal timber trade

Baozou Commentary : Blockchain technology is not developing very fast in the Brazilian market, mainly due to individual banks joining the R3 blockchain alliance and the government's discussion on digital currency supervision. Illegal timber trading is a global problem, and ensuring the transparency of timber trading is a mandatory policy in Brazil. Therefore, in order to improve the authenticity of records, the local timber registration system platform BVRio decided to cooperate with ConsenSys and use the Regis distributed application on the Ethereum platform. This will be the first time that Brazil has combined blockchain technology with real business.

Translation: Annie_Xu

BVRio, a Brazilian organization dedicated to promoting the development of green markets, worked with ConsenSys to transform Regis, a distributed application on the Ethereum platform, into a secure ledger.

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform that supports smart contract applications and distributed projects; it can support the creation of projects such as Regis. Regis is a decentralized online registration system built on the Ethereum platform.

The Regis system developed by New York-based enterprise production studio ConsenSys has won its first client, BVRio, a Brazilian agency that uses market mechanisms to drive companies and individuals to comply with environmental regulations. ConsenSys said that the modification of timber transportation records could make BVRio's work more difficult.

“BVRio plays an important role in the timber trading industry because illegal timber trading is a global problem, and Brazil in particular is enforcing transparency in trade. To improve the organization’s trade review process, Regis will provide transparent reporting records for each batch of timber.”

There are many ways to categorize timber shipments, including the source of the timber, the processing technology, and even the mode of transportation. All of these factors determine the market price of timber, so transparency in this process is important.

Wood mills often complain to BVRio that agency ratings are inconsistent with their data.

"Some time after the agency's rating report comes out, the wood factory often doesn't know why the rating of a batch of wood has changed, so they suspect that the agency has not updated the data properly. Of course, because BVRio has complete control over the database, it is impossible to prove that the records of the wood have not been modified after leaving the factory."

The Ethereum blockchain and Regis will allow BVRio to prove the authenticity of past grading reports.

“The agency can use Regis to prove that past reports have not been altered. The way the public ledger is recorded can increase trust between BVRio and the factory, thereby strengthening their business relationship.”