US Agriculture Dept approves blockchain-based certification system


Decentralized cow verification service CattleProof’s “Verified” has become the United States Department of Agriculture’s first blockchain-based Process Verified Program. 

CattleProof, a Wyoming-based company, uses a decentralized digital ledger to record information related to individual cows. Its tech combines the data sent from electronic identification tags attached to individual animals with updates about their condition, location, and other attributes on an immutable blockchain record. 

According to a company post, CattleProof now has the distinction of being the first US firm to receive USDA approval as a Process Verified Program (PVP) for putting cows on the blockchain. 

CattleProof announced its USDA PVP approval on LinkedIn. Source: CattleProof.

Process Verified Program

The USDA’s PVP service exists for situations where an organization such as CattleProof has to blaze new regulatory ground in order to market its products.

As the first firm to build a decentralized network for monitoring the status of cattle seeking regulatory guidance, the PVP system allowed CattleProof to create and submit a set of voluntary standards for government review.

According to CattleProof, they are the only USDA-approved PVP utilizing a digital ledger, also known as a blockchain. The company also claims to be the only service offering “Born in the USA” certification for cattle, digital certificates containing hyperlinks to individual animal data, and the “only USDA PVP integrated with Heartland Payments to buy and sell USDA verified cattle direct.”

Related: Worldcoin reaches 10M users, 70M transactions and at least 13 goats bought

The successful acceptance of CattleProof’s application indicates that it demonstrated compliance with existing regulatory standards in the sector and has implemented processes to ensure compliance as the blockchain and agriculture industries continue to intersect. 

It appears as though the USDA is increasingly accepting blockchain as a foundational technology throughout the agricultural world.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, the department recently proposed amending its rules on organic products to include implementing blockchain technology to trace supply chains. 

Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’