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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

NFT

With a Summer Opening In Sight, Flyfish Club Now Letting New Members Join in the Old-School Non-NFT Way

Remember Flyfish Club, the Gary Vaynerchuck-affiliated dining club that made news when it announced it was planning to build the world’s first NFT restaurant?

While you may not, the restaurant industry sure does. After the group raised an impressive $14 million in just weeks by selling tiered memberships via NFT, it seemed everyone started wondering, ‘Could it really be this easy?’ (Editor spoiler: For others, it was not that easy. Copycats proliferated, but none matched the success of Flyfish).

Since the group’s launch over two years ago, Flyfish has been mostly quiet, holding the occasional get-together and trickling out updates. Because of this relative quiet, members were naturally excited last week when Flyfish teased on its Discord that an announcement would be coming on April 5th. And, as it turns out, it was a pretty big announcement.

The group showed off what Gary Vaynerchuk described as a first look at the restaurant, calling the images photos even though some of the images—including the sushi chef—were clearly computer renderings. The renderings looked a lot like almost every Vegas restaurant or lounge I’ve ever been in.

More importantly, though, the announcement provided many more details about membership specifics, some of which the early members found frustrating.

One of those details, which can be seen in this Q&A PDF, is the group has made a fairly significant shift in its approach by letting folks purchase memberships in an old-school, non-Blockchain way. According to Flyfish, prospective members can purchase memberships by paying a one-time entrance fee of $1,500 (no crypto needed) and an annual membership fee of $3,500 ($4,000 if you want membership for yourself and a partner).

Another detail that caused some to bristle was the annual membership fee of $500 for “Blockchain” members (meaning members who entered through buying an NFT). As one Twitter user complained, “The mint was ~$8k in eth at the time, +2yrs of waiting and now we have to pay $500/year to get comp’d $500 in expensive food/drinks. Should be 2-3x that per year to make early backers feel whole.”

My guess is the group decided to become more flexible with membership options because the cost of constructing and operating a restaurant in New York City, as well as paying operating salaries to what is essentially a startup in the Flyfish Club team, is incredibly expensive. It’s also a recognition that while NFT membership is a cool idea that no doubt appeals to the Gary V community, most high-rollers in NYC who usually would pay for a dining club are probably not big NFT enthusiasts. While this will undoubtedly take some of the shine of exclusivity that appealed to the crypto in-crowd when it was first announced, I’m guessing that keeping the restaurant solvent is probably a good long-term thing.

Not all the new details were bummers. One new benefit Flyfish announced is partners are now included. While initially, the blockchain memberships meant only the holder was a member, now they say spouses or partners are also included as members. The group also detailed how membership gave members priority reservation access to other VCR Group (the holding group for Flyfish Club) restaurants.

Of course, none of this actually includes food if you are a non-Blockchain member. After these members pay their dues, no food is included. In other words, it’s pretty much the same as every other dining or country club. It’s mostly the same for blockchain members, though Flyfish will apply their $500 membership as a credit towards meals purchased at the club. Beyond that, though, they’re paying for every meal.

We’ll be in NYC this summer, so hopefully, we’ll be able to get a sneak peek. If one of our readers gets a chance to visit the Flyfish Club, drop us a line (with actual photos) and let us know what you think.

Cow NFT Platform CattlePay Paves the Way for Direct Sales With Heartland Deal

The last time we checked in with Rob Jennings of CattleProof, he was getting his cattle NFT platform off the ground. The idea was to create a permanent record of the life of a cow that followed it along the supply chain so that current and prospective owners all the way to a restaurant down the line that purchased beef would have a record of age, genetics, ranch of origin and more.

The idea is an interesting one, not only because it helps create better transparency into the history of a head of cattle, but also because it opens the door to more efficient way for prospective buyers and sellers to do business. Nowadays, if someone wants to buy a head of cattle, a sales transaction typically involves using a sale barn, an auction marketplace that facilitates the sale between buyer and seller. All well and good, except the resulting transactoin can take a week to ten days to process and often involves marketplace fees and commissions that can reach up to 10% of the total transaction.

Instead of using this slow and costly process, Jennings wants to make buying and selling cows as seamless (and low-fee) as buying or selling a stock – or NFT – through a digital marketplace. To that end, his company CattleProof has done an integration with Heartland, a payment processing company to launch CattlePay, an electronic payment system that allows cattle owners to buy and sell cattle via credit and debit cards and ACH payments.

“The idea is how do you create a more direct buyer to consumer payment system, minus all the fees and blockchain payments?” said Jennings in a interview with The Spoon. “And then, how do you inch your way towards getting real time settlement? Because that’s the other big thing: how do I get my money now?”

According to Jennings, the bigger vision of not only creating a lower-cost way to buy and sell cattle, but to create a friction-free way for buyers and sellers to connect. This means creating something akin to an Openseas for cattle, but without the complexity of having crypto wallets and all of the other blockchain related tech that often intimidates and turns off the uninitiated and non-crypto-pilled among us. To get there, CattleProof system will handle all of the web3 in the background, and offering the benefits of a blockchain proof of record and transaction system to the cattle buyers.

“Our goal is to in order to get cattle producers to participate, there’s got to be a return on investment,” Jennings told The Spoon in a recent interview. “And part of that return on investment is trying to find them ways to reduce these middleman fees.”

Jennings says he expects that the CattleProof system to launch in the first quarter of 2024.

Forum3 Announces $10M Seed Round On Heels of Launch of Starbucks’ Web3 Loyalty Beta

Today Forum3, a Seattle-based startup that helps companies build Web3-enabled loyalty programs, has announced it has raised a $10 million seed funding round. The company, co-founded by former Starbucks loyalty lead Adam Brotman and Seattle-based VC and ex-Microsoft exec Andy Sack, raised funding from Decasonic and included participation by Bloccelerate, Liberty City Ventures, and Arca, along with strategic investments from Polygon Ventures and Valor Siren Ventures.

The news comes a day after Starbucks launched the beta for Odyssey, the Web3-powered component of the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program. Odyssey allows members to gain benefits through playing games and participating in activities called Journeys. When they complete Journeys, members will earn points and get NFTs (called Journey Stamps) that give them access to exclusive benefits. In addition, members can purchase limited edition NFTs, which will provide them with additional Odyssey points and unique artwork. Some benefits that Odyssey members will have access to include exclusive events and early access to merchandise.

With the Starbucks deal, Forum3 co-CEO Brotman continues his long relationship with his former employer and fully embraces what has become his passion in Web3. Before founding Forum3, the coffee giant’s former Chief Digital Officer was hand-picked to be the CEO of Brightloom, a company that was re-spun as a digital loyalty platform company with a cash infusion from Starbucks. Over the past year plus, however, Brotman had made clear he was all-in on Web3, doing the rounds on podcasts, advising Starbucks on its entry into Web3, and forming a Web3 consultancy at Brightloom before starting his new company.

And to be honest, what Forum3 is now doing sounds a lot like what Brotman had started to build at Brightloom. Earlier this year, Brightloom had begun to put together its entry into the Web3 advisory services business but delayed the announcement until last month. According to Brightloom and Brotman’s Linkedin, he is still part-time chairman at Brightloom, or at least was until this week. My guess is Brotman saw the opportunity to leverage his relationship with Starbucks and make their interest in building a Web3 loyalty program the launch point for a new startup.

Interestingly, this news comes a week after Brightloom launched a new Web3 spinout called Thred, which calls itself a search and discovery platform for NFTs. Thred is led by Ben Straley, former president and chief product officer of Brightloom.

These moves come when NFTs and the broader Web3 space have come down to earth during a general crypto downturn. Despite all of the recent pessimism, it appears that investors still have an appetite for new loyalty and discovery platforms built on top of blockchain technology.

Founder of Eater & Resy Launches Blackbird, a Web3 Loyalty Platform for Hospitality

Ben Leventhal is at it again.

The founder of Eater and Resy’s new startup is called Blackbird, which he describes as “a new loyalty, membership, and payments technology company.”

The company will work on building software products “that establishes and enhances connectivity between individual restaurants and their guests.” The company says they will use “a mix of web2 and web3 inventions to make it all work.”

The move by Leventhal isn’t all that surprising, in part because he’s struck gold twice already with good timing: first by recognizing the opportunity for hyperlocal food media and later through building a mobile-forward, Airbnb-integrated restaurant reservation platform in Resy.

As we wrote in August, the efforts by some to onboard restaurants onto web3 were having mixed results. The most high-profile web3 meets restaurant effort so far has been from that of Leventhal’s former Resy cofounder Gary Vaynerchuk, who generated lots of buzz early this year with its NFT restaurant concept. Vaynerchuk, not surprisingly, is participating in Blackbird’s just announced $11 million seed round.

Leventhal’s hint Blackbird will use both web3 and web2 technologies sounds like he doesn’t have any designs to be hard-core crypto purist (part of the problem for some of the earlier efforts), and instead recognizes the need to provide an approachable onramp to most in the industry. And to be sure, the best near-term bet for restaurants to baby-step into Web3 is through enhanced loyalty programs, particularly programs that reward restaurants’ true fans with utility-driven rewards that encourage even more business.

As we discussed last March with Brightloom’s Adam Brotman, it’s not just chains that could benefit; non-chain restaurants also could use an easy-to-use platform that gives them a modern way to build community and make their best customers feel special. For his part, Brotman and Brightloom are probably Blackbird’s most direct competition as a web3 loyalty platform products company, given Brightloom’s already been working with clients like WowBao to develop their web3 products, have been hiring web3 developers, and Brotman’s fascination with the topic himself.

SimulATE Spring Video Sessions: The Food Web3 Summit

Earlier this month, SimulATE Spring convened the leaders pioneering in food & web3. Now you can watch all the sessions here!

The second installment of the SimulATE event series, we explore how the world of web3 will impact restaurants, CPG, ag, community building, and more.

Subscribers to Spoon Plus can get access to all of the sessions below.

Front Of House Takes an NFT Program to Smaller Restaurants

If you’ve ever taken home a souvenir menu or ashtray from your favorite restaurant, you will understand the role NFTs play in the hospitality industry. The same goes for attending a restaurant theme night or local pop-up of a new dining establishment. As Front of House (FOH) co-founder Phil Toronto eloquently puts it, a restaurant establishing a successful NFT strategy is “a beautiful merging of the digital and physical experience.”

Launching on May 18, Front of House (FOH) is a marketplace for NFTs of digital collectibles and experiences for independent restaurants. Co-founders Phil Toronto (VaynerFund), Colin Camac (former restaurateur), and Alex Ostroff (Saint Urbain) represent a mix of people with backgrounds in digital technology, advertising, and the hospitality industries. Initial clients include Wildair and Dame, with upcoming partners such as Rosella, Niche Niche, and Tokyo Record Bar.

The company’s business model is for the restaurant to keep 80% of the sale of digital collectibles. If an establishment uses a collectible as an invite to a unique dining experience, the restaurant will keep all the money from the food event.

Toronto stresses that FOH’s digital collectibles will be the digital analog to buying swag (such as a sweatshirt or tote bag) from your go-to dining establishment. Over time, he adds, the digital representations can grow to become interactive experiences that can be shared and/or enjoyed as a personal keepsake. “It’s a passport of sorts from your favorite restaurant,” the FOH co-founder told The Spoon in a recent interview.

The early adopters of using NFT as a marketing and sales tool are “scrappy entrepreneurs,” Toronto added, who had to get creative to stay afloat during the pandemic. “The commonality is that every restaurant owner interested in our program is entrepreneurial and looking to go outside the box,” he said.

Marketing and being on the cutting edge are only part of it. The impetus for jumping on board the growing NFT trend is about money. In addition to their regular dining business, an owner can collect revenue from digital collectibles, but the aspect with the most upside is creating memorable dining experiences. A key to all the possibilities is to make it simple for the customer to engage. A key to FOH’s success will be what the co-founder calls creating a frictionless experience, making it a little more than a typical eCommerce check-out experience.

“One of the avenues we’d like to explore is ticketed experiences where Front of House will work with a restaurant to buy it out for the night and have a special ticketed experience,” Toronto said. “That experience is sold through a digital collectible that lives on as a memory and a digital ticket stub you can take.”

Toronto said he is surprised that 65% of the customers he approaches get the idea and understand its value but might have a wait-and-see attitude. Once the pioneers prove NFTs successful and more than a “get rich quick” concept, he believes any reluctance will disappear. Also, Toronto commented that the NFT opportunity for restaurants isn’t limited to New York, Los Angeles, and other coastal towns. Given the hospitality business’s everyday issues, the concept will work just as well for Des Moines or any eatery wanting to explore a new business opportunity.

Meet the Experts and Innovators Inside the Foodverse and Web3

Our second virtual event looking at the intersection of food, restaurants, agriculture and all things Web3 starts today.

SimulATE Spring Summit will tackle the impact of Web3 on the food, restaurant, agriculture and CPG industries and talk to experts and entrepreneurs in the space, including:

Join us at 9:00 am PT for a day of discussions, networking + talks on the impact of Web3 on various aspects of the food space; and if you miss a session or can’t join us live, grab a VIP ticket for full on-demand digital access to sessions after the event.

Hope to see you inside!

Food NFT + Metaverse (in a) Minute: NFTs for Purpose Driven Restaurants, Cereal DAO

It’s still early days at the intersection of food and Web3 and that means there’s almost always something new happening and more to learn. Stay up to date with our coverage and these 3 things in this week’s Food Metaverse Minute:

NFTs for Purpose-Driven Restaurant

Chefs using NFTs to fund their next restaurant is becoming a regular thing — but even more inspiring is chefs using NFTs to give back to the workers who are the backbone of the restaurant industry. That’s what St. Paul-based chef Brian Ingram and his group Purpose Restaurants are doing with their next project.

Partnering with Chicago artist Joey Africa, the NFT collection will feature 71 original digital and physical pieces, each token serving as a membership to Ingram’s newest restaurant. The Apostle Supper Club, opening this summer across from the Xcel Energy Center, will hold VIP events like private chef dinners and menu tastings. Ten percent of the NFT raise will go back into the community; Ingram’s restaurant group regularly contributes to Give Hope, his charity created to give funds directly to people in their community, particularly restaurant workers dealing with housing insecurity or addiction.

We’ll be keeping an eye on hose this project performs. The NFTs went on sale last week on Opeaseas but so far there’s been little activity. While there’s been lots of inspiration from the success of the membership of Flyfish Club, no one – not surprisingly – has been able to replicate the success of the Gary Vee-affiliated group.

The DAO-Driven Cereal Company

NFT-branded cereal makes a debut from the “first decentralized CPG company” last week at Bitcoin Miami. The new CPG DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) — named gmgn supply co — launched with its first product, gm cereal and introduced its governance structure. The goal of DAOs is to spread collective decision-making rights along with ownership benefits to all of the involved members.

To drive hype for their launch, gmgn used Web3 marketing with BoredBecky, a curated personality with famous NFT social influencer group Bored Ape Club. The new group hopes to “revolutionize the CPG industry and drive the next generation of beloved brands,” and will be the first consumer packaged goods company to embrace NFTs as a way to fund and the DAO structure to run and grow the organization.

“If you look at the current CPG landscape, the majority of brands we eat every day are owned by 11 giant CPG conglomerates. gmgn supply co is changing this and our members will have a say in what they eat, what products are going to be made and help lead the CPG industry in a new direction that’s been elevated by Web3. We are excited to be leading this change and kicking it off with the launch of our first brand, gm Cereal, slated to drop in the Fall of this year,” said Phillipe LeBlanc, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Funday.” Funday is one of the founding companies that started gmgn.

SimulATE is Back

SimulATE is coming back! We’re bringing back the first virtual event dedicated to the emerging food, NFT, metaverse + crypto space and we’re going to be announcing our speaker lineup and agenda soon. Preview some of that here and if you use THIS LINK, you’ll get 50% off ticket prices through the end of this week (FRIDAY, 4/15 at 11:59 pm PST).

Here Are Four Ways Starbucks Could Get Into The NFT Business

Starbucks is getting into the NFT business.

That’s according to company CEO Howard Schultz, who recently held a company town hall to discuss what the company’s plans are for the coming year. Schultz, who retook the reigns of the coffee giant this week, said the company would be in the NFT business before the end of the calendar year.

“If you look at the companies, the brands, the celebrities, the influencers that are trying to create a digital NFT platform and business, I can’t find one of them that has the treasure trove of assets that Starbucks has, from collectibles to the entire heritage of the company,” Schultz said.

While it can often be cringe-inducing when CEOs talk about new digital formats – something Schultz acknowledged by admitting he’s not a digital native – he’s right that the company has many assets that could be tokenized and create new ways to engage with its customers.

So what exactly could Starbucks’ entry into the NFT business look like? Here are a four ideas about how Starbucks could leverage NFTs:

Create a Loyalty Program That Gives Special Rewards for Starbucks’ Most High-Value Customers

Back when Adam Brotman, who used to run Starbucks digital and now is CEO of Starbucks-invested Brightloom came on The Spoon podcast, he suggested that restaurants could reward their most loyal customers by issuing them an NFT.

They could say “here’s a code to claim your free NFT,” Brotman said. “And by the way, we’re only giving there’s only ever going to be 300 customers that can own the Portofino’s NFT.”

Brotman – who Schultz called out in the video above as a ‘digital native’ – highlighted different benefits restaurants could give such as special events, exclusive offers and more. In Starbucks’ case, I can imagine benefits like first access to special drinks or coffee roasts, a monthly free menu item, or digital assets like special coffee recipes.

A Membership Coffee Club

Another potential avenue for a Starbucks NFT could be a subscription coffee club. A club could be something like the Bored Breakfast Club, an NFT-powered subscription service that sends NFT holders special coffee roasts by mail. It could also include some Flyfish-club like benefits like special access to Starbucks’ unique venues like their roasteries.

Access to Unique Digital Experiences

A Starbucks NFT could also be a ticket to unique online experiences such as a tour of coffee locations or virtual online event with coffee experts. When asked about where he sees the metaverse going, Adam Brotman even suggested this as an idea.

“If I’m a Starbucks in the metaverse, I’m not just serving coffee. I’m growing coffee. I’m giving people tours of my farm in Costa Rica. What are the things that I wish I could transport people to experiences that I can’t scale in real life because of distance or cost or physics?”

NFTs Could Be Deep Insights Into Starbucks’ Coffee

One thing that makes NFTs and the blockchain interesting is their ability to provide proof of provenance for food and beverage products. Starbucks has long made noise about its use of fairtrade coffee, so it’s easy to envision how NFTs could be proof of where the coffee was sourced and provide deep insights to the coffee purchaser about the coffee chain of custody and provenance.

While all of this is speculation, I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two of my guesses is close to the direction Starbucks heads with their NFT effort. The company is a leader in digitization of the customer experience and is recognized for having one of the industry’s best loyalty programs.

Finally, given Adam Brotman’s presence at the Starbucks town hall and that the company he now leads, Brightloom, was essentially the result of Starbucks’ attempt to spin out its digital program assets into a standalone company, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brightloom plays a part in whatever NFT efforts emerge out of Starbucks this fall.

What Do NFTs and Web3 Mean for Small Restaurants?

So while it may not be surprising that a restaurant concept by alpha-adopter and Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk can raise millions of dollars selling NFTs, what about that mom & pop place on the corner?

In other words, how does a small restauranteur that doesn’t have the followers, fame and early adopter advantage of a Vaynerchuk take advantage of web3?

This is a problem Adam Brotman has been giving some thought to. As the former head of digital for Starbucks and CEO of a company that powers digital loyalty programs for restaurants big and small in Brightloom, he’s been imagining what a world looks like when more consumers know what an NFT is and how to hold it.

I asked him how a corner restaurant like the one in my neighborhood called Portofino’s might eventually use an NFT. According to Brotman, local restaurants like the one at the end of my street will eventually be able to put NFTs to use, but not in the same way celebrities as Vaynerchuk can.

“Portofino’s could say, ‘Yeah, we know who our best customers are, either by name or some loyalty program,'” Brotman said on the Spoon podcast. “And they give them an NFT. Say, ‘here’s a code to claim your free NFT. And by the way, we’re only giving there’s only ever going to be 300 customers that can own the Portofino’s NFT.’

Brotman says that there are plenty of benefits popular smaller restaurants can give loyal customers that would make an NFT valuable such as reservations whenever they want, free valet parking, special offers, and events.

Brotman acknowledges some things need to fall into place before small guys can use NFTs, the first of which is to make the onramp for customers to buy and hold NFTs a whole lot accessible.

“99% of their customers wouldn’t even know how to hold an NFT,” said Brotman. “You have to have a crypto wallet today. They ask, ‘what is a crypto wallet? How do I get one?'”

Brotman says the entire crypto tech space is working on this problem and believes big consumer-facing crypto companies like Coinbase will eventually offer easy-to-use solutions.

He also thinks the cost needs to come down, both in terms of transaction fees and the impact on the environment. He believes newer blockchain platforms that claim to be carbon neutral like Solana will help here.

Brotman also admits better tools are needed since offering something like an NFT is beyond the capabilities of most restauranteurs and says that this is a problem that Brightloom is working on.

Brotman also thinks the broader metaverse holds potential for restaurants, but it will be a while before all that is figured out.

“I think we’re a ways off from that,” said Brotman. “NFTs being used multi-purpose loyalty, access identity, digital collectible community formation tool is going to be more relevant first before there’s going a critical mass of people living in some virtual reality.”

But, just in case restaurants are already thinking of moving into the metaverse, Brotman doesn’t think they should be overly focused on being transactional, but instead on enabling experiences that are on-brand.

“If I’m a Starbucks in the metaverse, I’m not just serving coffee. I’m growing coffee. I’m giving people tours of my farm in Costa Rica. What are the things that I wish I could transport people to experiences that I can’t scale in real life because of distance or cost or physics?”

You can hear the rest of my conversation with Brotman in the latest episode of The Spoon podcast.

Tom Collichio and Spike Mendelson’s Pizza NFT Goes Live

Chefs Tom Collichio and Spike Mendelson officially launched CHFTY Pizza NFT project this week. The official “mint” or release of its 2777 unique pizza designs began this week, with the pre-sale started yesterday Wednesday, March 23 and the public sale opening today.


Each NFT is priced at .07 Ethereum (worth $204 as of this writing) which will net CHFTY founders around $566,000. NFT holders will have access to virtual and in-person pop-up events, classes, kitchen accessories + apparel and more. CHFTY Pizza’s Discord has more details including an AMA the team did over the weekend to rally support and add people to the insider “Slicelist” for pre-sale access.

Chefs talk NFT and CHFTY at SimulATE Mini-Summit

Chefs Mendelson and Collichio joined The Spoon at our virtual February 1st SimulATE Food Metaverse + NFT Mini-Summit to discuss their upcoming NFT, its intended purpose and why it was important for the chef community to be involved in the development of Web3.

Mendelson commented, “(Post pandemic) I felt left behind in Web 2.0 and technology, as a restaurant tour and chef. And I was fighting to learn really quick on how to develop your own app, how to drive traffic from those third-party stores to your own app, but we were really way behind that point. So we want to enter NFTs right.”

When Collichio noticed artists and other creators were using NFTs as a way of keeping their own IP and driving revenue back to themselves when releasing their art, the two began a conversation on how to leverage NFTs for chefs and foodies. And out of that, the project that would become CHFTY Pizza was born.

The IP in the culinary world is difficult to protect in the age of digital food content and shareable recipes and food creation — and restaurateurs and chefs are in need of new pathways to profits in a post-pandemic world.

“What this does is that’s going to enable a restaurant term to expand way past their brick and mortar. This is where the world’s going, so we can either sit there and dig our feet and go no, we’re not going to do this or we can embrace it and get in front of it. And I think that’s what Spike and I are doing,” remarked Chef Collichio.

What’s next?

If you’re able to grab one of the 2,777 tokens during the pre or public sale, you’ll have to stay tuned and see what rewards and utilities will be added. First up, CHFTY Pizzas is hosting its first in-person event for token holders in Washington, DC, and will include meet and greets with founding Chefs Tom and Spike along with Andrew Zimmern, Maneet Chauhan and Kristen Kish.

To listen to the entire discussion on restaurants, NFTs and CHFTY Pizza, join Spoon Plus and get access to all virtual event archives.

Food meets the metaverse

Join us for SimulATE Spring Summit virtually on May 4th

Get early bird tix for our food metaverse, NFT + Web3 summit

‘It’s Like a Driver’s License for Cows’: Why One Wyoming Company is Creating NFTs for Cattle

Back when Rob Jennings helped found the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition back in 2017, he knew he needed to find a use case that resonated with residents of the Cowboy State. It didn’t take him long before he settled on beef.

“Back then, there was a lot of conversation around about how grass-fed, grain-finished Wyoming fat cattle beef was being mixed into commodity feed yards with lesser animals, let’s say,” Jennings said on a Zoom call with The Spoon. “And so we developed this idea about how you could use blockchain to verify the animal’s provenance.”

Back then, Jennings worked with the University of Wyoming to develop the technology for his first blockchain startup called Beefchain. And while he and other early blockchain enthusiasts found the idea of putting the information about a steer on the blockchain exciting, Jennings found the response more muted when explaining the technology to ranchers, mainly because many of them still couldn’t see the immediate value of such a tech-forward solution.

That’s when Jennings started to think about ways to utilize NFTs. With the early implementations of storing cattle data on the blockchain, Jennings said they would hash an entire excel spreadsheet and put it on the bitcoin blockchain.

“Yes, you’re putting the information there, but it wasn’t functional,” said Jennings.

He knew that there were certain challenges in cattle ranching that could be met head-on with the utility provided by NFTs that would go beyond simply putting information on the blockchain. He knew that to build something cattle ranchers and others in the industry found useful, he had to create a platform for an individual digital record and add on additional functionality through the application layer brought on by an NFT. That’s when he founded CattleProof.

“It’s like a driver’s license for cows,” said Jennings. “I’ve always believed that whatever you want to do with blockchain and all of the functionality that’s promised to us down the horizon, and it starts with creating that record.”

Attributes about the cow such as age, genetics, ranch of origin, and more can be stored and easily accessed by the holder of the NFT. Additionally, certifications such as an inspection record can be appended to the NFT.

“Traditionally, inspection records are a piece of paper,” said Jennings. “Inspectors say, ‘okay, these hundred cows are good’, and then you have that one piece of paper you take along the supply chain. So what we wanted to do is create the ability for all of this metadata that’s associated with each animal to travel along the supply chain. So the next guy who buys this animal, whether it’s one or one hundred, will have access to all of this information appended to this NFT.”

Jennings also said financial functionality could be derived from a cow NFT.

“You could use an NFT record to collateralize the animals with a bank,” said Jennings. “You could use them to track movement. You can use them to do an e-brand inspection and interstate movement.”

Jennings says that transferring ownership via an NFT at cattle auctions will expedite fund transfer for the cow. Funds transfer nearly immediately, compared to the days or weeks through the traditional financial reconciliation process.

The way CattleProof’s technology works is the rancher creates an account via the company’s website, which creates a digital wallet. Next, the rancher tags the cow via a Bluetooth sensor or an EID (an embedded tag that goes into the cow’s ear), and then uses the CattleProof app to scan the EID for each animal. Next, they enter the data (photo, weight, breed, etc) and, once all the information is entered, the rancher “hits a big red button” and mints an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain.

From there, the owner of the NFT controls who can see the data and is the only one that can enter new data (past data can’t be changed). If the animal is sold, ownership of the NFT – and all control rights to the data and the animal – are passed onto the new owner.

His company has already run a successful trial of the collaboration with Wilson Ranch in December. The company helped Wilson Ranch create NFTs for 20 steers that were sold through the website of Wilson’s distribution partner, Flying Diamond Beef. The company has plans to expand trials to more ranches in the coming months.

CattleProof has filed for a provisional patent and is currently working to develop a USDA process that the agency can recognize as an approved process flow for a verified claim utilizing blockchain technology.

“It’s exciting,” said Jennings. “I grew up in Wyoming. I like the Western way of life. I want to help producers connect more directly with consumers and democratize the marketplace.”