Origin and Elastos Announce Collaboration in Developing An Agribusiness Transaction, Data Service Platform using Blockchain Technologies

BEIJING, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED) ("the Company" or "Origin") an agricultural biotechnology trait and corn seed provider, and Elastos Foundation today announced their plan to develop a global strategic partnership for mutually beneficial joint activities fostering smart economic solutions to establish platforms to serve global agribusiness transactions, data services, and rural e-commerce activities.

The Elastos Project was initially conceived by Mr. Rong Chen in 2000, as he sought to develop the world's first internet operating system. Elastos Foundation was founded in 2016 by Rong Chen and Sunny Feng Han, aiming to create a new Internet system powered by blockchain technologies. Elastos turns an open-source software platform into decentralized applications (Dapps) that runs on a peer-to-peer network without centralized control. Users can access these Dapps via their mobile phones, without changing their operating system. The current Internet provides a web of information as users would receive data and information by clicking a URL. The new Elastos Dapps is creating a web of apps where a user gets codes when clicking a URL. Elastos utilizes blockchain technologies to issue IDs for digital content, making it possible to know who owns which digital assets. The Elastos Web will be a special economic zone where Elastos tokens (ELA) function as the base currency.

Origin, focusing on biotechnology traits and corn seed business, has been developing a system for seed tracking and e-commerce technologies in order to provide the best seed technologies to Chinese farmers. With several years' trial experience and assistant from Elastos Foundation during the development of Origin's e-commerce platform, both Origin and Elastos believe formal cooperation in developing a comprehensive platform based on Elastos' Smart Web technologies would provide a great service to global agribusiness transactions, data services, and rural e-commerce activities.

The development of such platform based on Elastos' Smart Web powered by blockchain technologies is expected to solve seed piracy problems and protect agricultural seed intellectual properties. Elastos' blockchain can utilize digital ID system so that seed suppliers and farmers can easily track a seed's original source. In addition, the operating system of Elastos has a great advantage to process large transaction volumes to meet the need of surging e-commerce activities.

"I always have had a great respect for Rong and his team since we both started our separated but unique technology businesses in Zhongguancun, and I'm very excited that our cooperation over the last several years have led to a new level of cooperation with much clearer and higher objectives," said Dr. Gengchen Han.  He continued saying that "we believe that the new platform would allow us to provide much more advanced services to the global agribusiness and rural e-commerce services in China."

"I'm delighted to see that our service to Origin has been well recognized; we believe together we can develop a unique, a much more comprehensive technology platform with our decentralized applications (Dapps) powered by blockchain technologies. We warmly welcome Origin to become a key member in our Elastos community," said Mr. Chen.

Both Origin and Elastos agreed to initiate the cooperation immediately. In addition, both companies agreed that Mr. Rong Chen, founder of Elastos will join Origin's board and Dr. Gengchen Han, chairman of Origin, will serve Elastos as an advisor. Both companies also agreed to mutually invest into each other.

About Origin Agritech Limited

Origin Agritech Limited, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Zhong-Guan-Cun (ZGC) Life Science Park in Beijing, is China's leading agricultural biotechnology company, specializing in crop seed breeding and genetic improvement. Leading the development of crop seed biotechnologies, Origin Agritech's phytase corn was the first transgenic corn to receive the Bio-Safety Certificate from China's Ministry of Agriculture. Over the years, Origin has established a robust biotechnology seed pipeline including products with glyphosate tolerance and pest resistance (Bt) traits. Origin operates breeding stations nationwide located in key crop-planting regions. Product lines are vertically integrated for corn. For further information, please visit the Company's website at: http://www.originseed.com.cn or http://www.originseed.com.cn/en/.

Forward-Looking Statements

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SOURCE Origin Agritech Limited