GrainChain Plans Global Expansion Using Symbiont's Enterprise Blockchain Platform

NEW YORK, March 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- GrainChain, the blockchain platform for the agricultural business ecosystem, plans to globally expand and scale its operations by moving to the Symbiont enterprise blockchain platform, Assembly^™. Assembly provides the robust privacy features, and seamless scalability GrainChain needs to meet the demands of their current and future markets.

With established operations in Texas, Honduras and Mexico, GrainChain plans to rapidly expand its value proposition to the numerous countries whose agricultural economies could benefit from better technology. GrainChain uses smart contracts to empower low-income farmers with accelerated payments, which may be critical for struggling farming businesses. Previously on Hyperledger Fabric, GrainChain needed to move to a more scalable network with full enterprise-level support that would allow for easier global growth.

"Our mission has always been to help support farmers around the world," comments Luis Macias, Chief Executive and Founder of GrainChain. "By pulling the agriculture supply chain onto blockchain technology, we're helping every participant in that ecosystem -- from farmers to bankers to grain elevators -- get fairer value, faster payment and a bigger participant pool. We cannot be constrained by technology -- which is why we moved to the Symbiont network. Symbiont is the blockchain engine that will help power our global vision."

By moving to the Symbiont network, GrainChain has seen a substantial improvement in platform performance and privacy features, allowing them to drastically increase the number of farmers, buyers and grain elevators being serviced. Already working with over 20 different commodities, GrainChain plans to continue adding new commodity types to its platform. GrainChain recently closed a funding round of $8.2m, led by Medici Ventures, the wholly owned blockchain subsidiary of Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), which has also invested in Symbiont.

Jonathan Johnson, President of Medici Ventures and CEO of Overstock, says, "These are two powerful, purpose-driven companies coming together to bring important technology to the global agricultural community. We have ownership in both GrainChain and Symbiont because we believe in their underlying value propositions and advanced technology and the potential impact they will have on the verticals and countries in which they do business."

Symbiont is an enterprise fintech creating the next generation of financial markets infrastructure using blockchain technology. Symbiont works with leading institutions such as Citi, Nasdaq, Ranieri, and Vanguard.

"GrainChain's mission to empower farmers is one that we truly believe in," comments Daniel Truque from Symbiont's Alternative Assets team. "The Symbiont platform was purpose-built for this kind of global scale. Around the world, the agricultural supply chain is plagued by inefficiency and lack of digitization, which is keeping money out of farmers' pockets. It's time we change that."

About GrainChain
GrainChain's innovative platform using blockchain, IoT and advanced logistics systems expedites agricultural settlement payments to farmers and suppliers while providing the immediate availability of tradable commodities to buyers.

About Symbiont

Symbiont is the enterprise fintech company creating the next generation of financial markets infrastructure using blockchain technology. Assembly™, Symbiont's enterprise blockchain platform, creates efficiencies, eliminates manual data replication and reconciliation processes, and enables real-time data sharing with complete privacy. The world's leading financial services firms, including Citi, Nasdaq, Ranieri, Templum and Vanguard, choose to work with Symbiont to solve their toughest business problems. With offices in New York and Amsterdam, Symbiont is led by a team of experts in capital markets and blockchain technology. To learn more about Symbiont, please visit symbiont.io or contact the team at [email protected].

About Medici Ventures
Launched in 2014, Medici Ventures is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Overstock.com, Inc. created to leverage blockchain technology to solve real-world problems with transparent, efficient, and secure solutions. Medici Ventures has interests in a global keiretsu of groundbreaking blockchain-focused companies focused on building the foundation of a technology stack for civilization. Medici Ventures' companies are introducing blockchain technology to industries including identity, land governance, money and banking, capital markets, supply chain, and voting. The company's majority-owned financial technology company, tZERO, executed the world's first blockchain-based stock offering in December 2016.

About Overstock

Overstock.com, Inc Common Shares (NASDAQ:OSTK) / Digital Voting Series A-1 Preferred Stock (Medici Ventures' tZERO platform:OSTKO) / Series B Preferred (OTCQX:OSTBP) is an online retailer and technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its leading e-commerce website sells a broad range of new home products at low prices, including furniture, décor, rugs, bedding, home improvement, and more. The online shopping site, which is visited by nearly 40 million customers a month, also features a marketplace providing customers access to millions of products from third-party sellers. Overstock was the first major retailer to accept cryptocurrency in 2014, and in the same year founded Medici Ventures, its wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to the development and acceleration of blockchain technologies to democratize capital, eliminate middlemen, and re-humanize commerce. Overstock regularly posts information about the Company and other related matters on the Newsroom and Investor Relations pages on its website, Overstock.com.

O, Overstock.com, O.com, Club O, Main Street Revolution, and Worldstock are registered trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Other service marks, trademarks and trade names which may be referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including but not limited to statements regarding Overstock's expectations regarding Symbiont and GrainChain. Additional information regarding factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on March 13, 2020, and any subsequent filings with the SEC.
SOURCE: Overstock.com, Inc.

CONTACT:
Binna Kim, [email protected]

SOURCE Symbiont

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