Facing Bees Foundation Launches 'Honeytrail', Enabling Authentic Honey Traceability on Hedera Network

With funding from The Hashgraph Association and support from HiveTracks, the Honeytrail platform addresses issues of honey adulteration and authentication

ZUG, Switzerland, May 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Facing Bees Foundation, a Netherlands-based non-profit organization focusing on the promotion of biodiversity worldwide, has launched the 'Honeytrail' platform, a cost-effective honey traceability platform built on Hedera DLT (Decentralized Ledger Technology) and funded by  The Hashgraph Association (THA), the Swiss-based organization at the forefront of global digital enablement. 

Honeytrail seeks to revolutionize the beekeeping industry by tackling the pervasive challenges of honey authentication and adulteration - the practice of adultering pure honey with substances such as sugar or water to increase its volume. The Facing Bees Foundation has partnered with HiveTracks to implement this solution leveraging DLT. High costs and barriers have often marginalized small-scale and technologically underserved beekeepers, especially in regions across the Global South. By utilizing the Hedera-powered network, Honeytrail provides an accessible and affordable solution for beekeepers to authenticate their honey produce.

"The launch of Honeytrail marks a significant milestone in creating a transparent and sustainable honey market," said Milan Wiercx van Rhijn, President of the Facing Bees Foundation. "This initiative not only aids beekeepers globally but also sets new standards in product integrity and consumer trust with the help of blockchain technology."

The Facing Bees Foundation envisions Honeytrail as a foundational trust layer within the beekeeping industry, an industry in dire need of transparency and reliability. The decentralized application adds significant value to beekeepers providing genuine honey, thereby supporting real ecosystem services. This philosophy underpinned the development of the platform in close collaboration with Mountain Dev, Honeytrail's development partner. As Honeytrail evolves, it aims to become a crucial component of an emerging online global honey marketplace.

Max Rünzel, CEO & co-founder of HiveTracks, stated, "HiveTracks is Honeytrail's inaugural implementation partner. With this partnership, users can now activate Honeytrail within their HiveTracks Pro account, providing an immutable trail of beekeeping data points such as honey harvests, hive inspections, and records. HiveTracks is excited and proud to be part of this mission to bring web3-enabled transparency and reliability to the beekeeping sector in an easy-to-use way through our applications."

With HiveTracks, beekeepers can submit records and inspections through the application. The data entry is then validated by the HoneyTrail API and written to the Hedera Public Network. Honeytrail takes care of the validation and writing to a decentralized ledger, allowing for easy integration for stakeholders along the honey supply chain.

For additional information about Honeytrail and HiveTracks, please visit www.honeytrail.io or www.HiveTracks.com.

About Facing Bees Foundation

The Facing Bees Foundation is a non-profit organization based in The Netherlands. Its focus is to promote biodiversity worldwide through increasing awareness, and creating action-based tools to promote biodiversity-positive livelihood generation. For inquiries related to Honeytrail please contact [email protected]

About Mountain Dev

Mountain Dev is proud to serve as the cornerstone of software development for Honeytrail, expertly merging HiveTracks' user interface with Hedera's blockchain capabilities. As the development partner for the Hedera Honeytrail blockchain integration, we've crafted a seamless and secure platform that enhances transparency and empowers beekeepers throughout the honey supply chain. Located in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, Mountain Dev is a full-stack software development studio with a passion for mission-driven startups and over 30,000 development hours dedicated to transforming great ideas into exceptional software. Please contact [email protected] if you want to get in touch.

About HiveTracks

HiveTracks, Inc. is a western North Carolina-based AgTech start-up developing technology-powered products for beekeepers, beekeeping businesses, governments, and NGOs. The company's mission is to create a positive impact on bee health, beekeeper livelihoods, and biodiversity by connecting people, nature, and data. HiveTracks' mobile app is a personal assistant to track, plan, and guide beekeepers throughout the season to do what's best for the health of their bees. HiveTracks' vision is to build a global platform for crowd-sourced environmental data collection to authenticate honey, provide and account for pollination ecosystem services, and create economic opportunities for smallholder producers. Please reach out to [email protected] if you want to learn more.

About The Hashgraph Association

The Hashgraph Association is at the forefront of the digital enablement and empowerment of organizations through the broad adoption of Hedera-powered enterprise-grade solutions and decentralized applications, including funding training, innovation, and venture building programs globally. As a non-profit organization headquartered in Switzerland, The Hashgraph Association supports and funds innovation, research, and development that enables economic inclusion and a digital future for all, with a positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact. For further information about The Hashgraph Association, visit www.hashgraph-association.com.

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SOURCE Facing Bees Foundation