Zirconium industrial application showcases Waves blockchain significance
ZrCoin, a new commodity-backed blockchain tokens project, shows how far distributed ledger technology has come in its brief history.

There are several major projects launching on the Waves blockchain in the coming week. EncryptoTel will be collecting funds for the development and marketing of an innovative secure VoIP product that is head and shoulders above anything else the telecommunications industry currently has to offer, whilst MobileGo’s crowdsale looks set to be one of the most keenly-anticipated of the year and promises to revolutionise the gaming industry.

These are two very different sectors, though both are part of the online world. A third initiative, ZrCoin, shows how blockchain technology will permeate and offer benefits for not only web-based businesses, but the physical manufacturing sector too.

Green zirconium

ZrCoin is based on a new manufacturing process for zirconium dioxide (ZrO2), a material used in various industrial applications due to its resilience to high temperatures and pressures. Most of the zirconium employed in ceramics plants and the nuclear industry, amongst other uses, is mined from the ground. This has a significant environmental impact. ZrCoin’s team of scientists has developed a way to recover ZrO2 from waste materials from these industries. The result costs less, is of higher quality, and is more environmentally friendly.

Unfortunately, the nature of the Russian banking sector and economy means that it is impossible to gain mainstream funding to put this into practice on a large scale. The demand is there — the team has already established this from its industry contacts — but the money not. This is the kind of inefficiency in the market that blockchain technology, with its lack of gatekeepers, is well placed to address.

Crowdsale

The ZrCoin team are looking to crowdfund at least $3.5 million in cryptocurrency and USD to build their first factory, whilst the maximum of $7 million would allow a second factory to be built and consequently a faster rate of production. Whilst this is a relatively modest amount by the standards of big business, it’s a very exciting application, since it bridges the online world of the blockchain and the real-world realm of physical manufacturing. Such initiatives have been launched before, but this is undoubtedly one of the largest. (Backing by established academic and industry figures also makes it one of the more respectable projects. Urocoin raised some investment — and eyebrows — back in 2014, but has since ended up in the drain.) Alongside projects like Upcoin, a political initiative, it’s evidence that blockchain has come of age and reached a level of technological maturity where it can be applied to many different sectors.

ZrCoin’s crowdsale will open on 25 April and will last for one month. ‘Options’ for 1kg of ZrO2 will be sold at a starting price of $1.40. ZrCoins will be bought back at the market price of ZrO2 when production begins, roughly $2.80. Meanwhile, as a blockchain token ZrCoins can be transferred and traded freely on the open market.

For more information, visit www.ZrCoin.io.
['Waves Tech']
['Crowdfunding', 'ICO', 'Bitcoin', 'Fintech', 'Blockchain']