Delicia is an Estonian-based startup positioning itself at the nexus of two very big trends: blockchain and combating food waste, and the company is hosting an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) next month to raise funds to aid in the fight.
According to the Delicia website, the company uses the blockchain to create a global, decentralized platform for retailers like grocery and convenience stores to sell food that is nearing expiration to local buyers like restaurants or consumers.
The benefits of this, Delicia says, is that retailers can put food to use before it goes to waste. Additionally, the company says it will use artificial intelligence to analyze historical buying and selling patterns to create a more efficient supply chain — routing food where it should go and minimize surpluses that go to waste.
The idea of using blockchain for food is certainly not a new one. Lots of players like Ripe.io, Foodlogiq, and even Walmart are using the public ledger software to bring transparency and efficiency to the food supply chain.
But Delicia appears to be more focused on creating a marketplace for food buyers and sellers, similar to Karma and other apps already available, just built on blockchain.
Delicia’s roadmap says it will release a beta version in North America and Europe this December, with a production release in both those areas in December of 2019. Delicia joins other food-based ICOs including FeedChain and FoodCoin.
ICOs have come under more scrutiny lately, as the SEC flexes its regulatory muscles and tries to warn people of ICO scams.
Delicia may be completely legitimate, but there are couple red flags on its site. One of the top “News & Blog” posts explains your chance to become a “Delicia millionaire” by participating in a viral campaign. Additionally, the company lists Buzzfeed under “Partners and Media,” but the link goes to a community post on Buzzfeed, where anyone can create a post.
Hopefully Delicia is legitimate as food waste is a huge problem. We have reached out to the company and will update as we hear more (See UPDATE below). If you’re in Seattle and interested in learning more about what’s being done to prevent food waste, come to our Food Waste Solutions meetup this month!
UPDATE:
Delicia sent us the following email:
- The millionaire contest is to offer the delicia tokens as part of the social media competition to increase awareness about food waste and the solution we are offering. For more details please visit the link of the contest which points to the medium blog: https://medium.com/
delicia-global-food-network/ delicias-millionaire-giveaway- contest-3a471f89e897 - Buzzfeed link: We had this link from the early days of the launch when we were still working on getting some media traction. This section now has been revamped to point links to CCN, Reuters, etc.
