Moscow will use Ethereum’s blockchain for the farmers’ market season

The government of Moscow has announced plans to use Ethereum-based smart contracts to create a system for allocating trading spaces and supporting trading activities during weekend farmers’ markets.

Local authorities intend to use the system to process farmers’ applications as they compete for one of the 2,736 trading spots available during the market season from 20th April to 25th November. Tens of thousands of farmers come to Moscow from within Russia as well as from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. According to the Russian capital’s government, about 20,000 applications are made each year.

Immutability and transparency

“By using Ethereum, the government intends to make the records immutable and transparent so that updates will be displayed in an organised and efficient manner,” says Moscow City Hall Blockchain Product Manager Andrey Borodyonkov.

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“Blockchain is an additional guarantee that the incoming applications remain immutable as well as makes the audit of the application history possible,” he adds.

“The entire dataset is publicly viewable, transparent and available for download. In that case, submission time can be confirmed, while the application cannot be deleted or altered by someone once it is submitted.”

Complaints from farmers

Belozerov explains that one reason for implementing blockchain for the market season is the number of complaints the government receives each year from dissatisfied farmers.

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“We believe that farmers should have a transparent system to see why their application is declined or approved,” he explained.

“Blockchain is to make sure that the process is fully transparent and no one can alter an application. We hope that blockchain will provide full transparency for everyone.”