Since the launch of Ethereum, the number of protocols looking to overhaul finance, gaming, technology overall, and, recently, real-world assets (RWAs) through distributed ledger technology, notably blockchain, has increased dramatically.
Much of the discussion about RWAs centres around real estate and (to a lesser extent) artworks, with the fractionalisation of such assets opening up many more opportunities for the average investor.
Another industry that will benefit immensely from blockchain tech is agriculture, particularly small-scale farming in developing nations.
Enter Dimitra.
What is Dimitra?
Dimitra is a protocol headed by AgTech firm Dimitra Incorporated. It offers products to help smallholder farmers harness the benefits of blockchain tech for improved yields, better mapping, and less wastage, i.e., run-off of excess fertiliser, pesticides, and herbicides, which will, in turn, provide better environmental and financial outcomes.
Moreover, blockchain technology can help provide affordable and reliable technologies, giving smaller operators more opportunities to boost profits and ensuring greater transparency across supply chains, which works well for them and the end consumer.
News and partnerships (Use cases)
Real-World Asset (RWA) Dimitra NFTs
One of Dimitra’s latest initiatives provides additional opportunities for independent farmers to access extra funding by allowing people worldwide to purchase a tokenised form of an RWA (in this case, crops, such as an avocado tree). These RWAs are expressed as NFTs through the Dimitra Marketplace.
These supply the plants, and farmers use the funds from the NFT sales to purchase new equipment, particularly technology such as soil sensors, drones, and satellite imaging software, to boost productivity and yields.
In return, the NFT owner receives rewards via revenue-sharing arrangements. DMTR is used as the utility token and burned in small amounts per transaction, thus keeping its inflation rate in check.
Click on the video below and the NFT Highlights page for further details. Per tokenomics, I will cover this later in the post.
Dimitra's RWA program represents a groundbreaking approach to supporting smallholder farmers, leveraging blockchain technology, and AI, for sustained agricultural practices and financial empowerment. 🚀🌳$DMTR pic.twitter.com/duw7KKIcv9
— Dimitra Technology (@dimitratech) April 9, 2024
(@dimitratech) on X (formerly Twitter)
Improving agriculture across the (developing) world
Dimitra is forging collaborations with agricultural entities across developing areas, including India, Brazil, and Bangladesh. These are three of the ten most populated countries worldwide, collectively accounting for 1.8 billion people.
Moreover, these economies still have significant growth potential and are ripe for technological disruption in primary industries, especially those using distributed ledger technology and decentralised systems in general.
A major use case here is the Connected Coffee program, whereby farmers must register and upload information, including location, number of trees and farming methods, into the Dimitra Connected Farmer Android-based app.
One of the case studies utilising this tech is the Solok Radjo cooperative in Indonesia for improved quality control and yields across its coffee’s value chain, leading to greater efficiencies and profits. This, in turn, can be used to scale its organisation and invest more money into its members’ local communities.
Launch of Dimitra Europe
Last month, Dimitra Incorporated, the main entity behind this project, announced its foray into Europe by establishing Dimitra Europe GmbH.
This will complement its work in Latin America — and its establishment of a local headquarters in Brazil — to help primary producers in the region comply with the EU’s deforestation-free regulations (EUDR), which will come into effect on 30 December this year.
DMTR price history, tokenomics and available markets
The token’s 96% decline will put some off since launching in September 2021 at around $3.20. However, experienced crypto holders and traders will know steep drops following (local) peaks are a market-wide issue, with most assets well below their all-time high or launch price.
For example, Propy (PRO), another token involved in RWAs, has experienced major declines from local peaks, only to bounce back with sharp growth spurts during a bull market, new partnerships or announcements relating to RWAs.
Going back to DMTR, we’ve seen an uptick in 24-hour volume and price since March, and now that the latest Bitcoin halving has occurred, I expect more bullish momentum in the coming months.
. Snapshot taken on 2 May 2024.
Its 2021 whitepaper specifies a maximum supply of one billion tokens “over 20 years.” A future version should determine whether or not this hard cap will remain beyond 2040 (I assume this will be the case), but it’s a positive sign that a maximum supply has been specified. This paper also includes a detailed breakdown of token distribution and timeframes, as shown below.
Dimitra allows users to contribute to the network by staking DMTR via its Portal. In return, you are eligible for up to 13% APY.
Despite this incentive, I won’t be staking my tokens. The main reason is the KYC requirements when using the Portal, at least from my experience. I find this bizarre, as I have never seen this when going through a non-custodial wallet.
This appears to be the only practical and legitimate option available so far. I came across an article claiming that you can stake DMTR using DappRadar, but this is vague and seems to be AI-generated content, so take it with a grain of salt.
The second issue I have here is there is no information about stake pools and measures to encourage (rather, ensure sufficient) decentralisation with its staking setup.
For example, Cardano has a saturation parameter (K) for its stake pools that offers fewer rewards once the combined stake (in a pool) reaches X amount. This incentivises delegators to use smaller pools and prevents larger ones from forming, thus contributing to decentralisation.
To Dimitra’s defence, I understand it’s a significantly smaller protocol than Cardano, Ethereum, Polkadot and other large-cap assets. However, this must be addressed if Dimitra continues to grow, which I imagine it will.
About 91M DMTR tokens have been staked out of the reported ~507M in circulation.
Even though I am very enthusiastic about this project and its prospects, it’s important to analyse audits conducted for any crypto project before investing (large sums) into its native coin or token.
DEXTools — a leading DeFi trading app — also publishes data covering a token’s overall security and publishes a related security score (out of 99) based on various metrics, e.g., verified contracts, honeypot alert, buy and sell taxes, whether a contract can mint tokens, ownership transparency, etc.
The DEXTools score for DMTR is 66, with a moderate level of trustworthiness, per external audits published on its website, which you can see here for Dimitra. Moralis Money provides a similar analysis, with a mediocre security score of 57 for this project.
In brief, keep an eye on these above-mentioned metrics whilst you have money invested in the token (if you choose to do so), especially with lesser-known altcoins and tokens. DMTR’s market cap still offers a promising risk-return ratio, even when solely banking on the potential upside many tokens experience amid a bull run.
The two most practical options to buy DMTR without KYC are:
1) Via a decentralised exchange (DEX) — Uniswap, 1Inch and Metamask are three good options. Be mindful of when you conduct ERC-20 token swaps, as the fees can vary considerably. Thus, you should check Etherscan’s Ethereum Gas Tracker and the price heatmap below.
Before you beat me to it, yes, you can often go via an L2 and pay a cent or two, but these don’t appear to support swaps for all ERC-20 tokens. The only alternative I’ve identified is to use a sidechain like Polygon and purchase pDMTR, but I prefer to buy the asset on ETH or an L2 (when available and as a second choice).
2) Coinstore is the only exchange that allows you to trade and withdraw the token without KYC, at least from my experience at the time of writing using the listed market pairs.
Your best bet is to deposit crypto with ultra-low fees and a fast settlement, e.g., NEAR, XRP, LTC, SOL (rather than using ETH), exchange it for USDT, and then buy DMTR.
Despite going through a few extra steps, this takes a few minutes. However, you still rely on a centralised exchange as an intermediary, so proceed cautiously.
Additional thoughts
I see blockchain technology (and even other distributed ledger systems) playing a key role in revolutionising agriculture, forestry, and other primary industries. Robotics, AI, and other tools are also available to significantly boost productivity and transparency in this sector.
Once the technology becomes highly advanced, this will become a mainstream aspect of modern agriculture for big and small players, with copious amounts of relevant agricultural data that would not have been readily available for smallholder farmers by conventional means.
“Blockchain technology or blockchain in agriculture can track all types of information about plants, such as seed quality, crop growth, and even the travel of a plant after it leaves the farm. This data can improve supply chain transparency and eliminate concerns associated with illegal and unethical operations. They can also help track contamination or other issues back to their source in the case of a recall.”
Dr. Manish Kumar Jain > Blockchain Technology in Agriculture: Application Techniques
I anticipate vast increases in R&D funding for agriculture in the coming years in response to increasing levels of affluence, greater urbanisation, and population growth, notably in the developing world.
We’ll need all the available tools, and blockchain will be pivotal in achieving this, especially once the tech becomes highly advanced and widespread.
I also see massive potential for Dimitra to expand beyond agriculture into fisheries and aquaculture. This will become increasingly important as the world’s oceans are already at risk from overfishing, not to mention feeding a growing population. There is also a need to combat illegal fishing, with one country in particular gaining notoriety for its treatment of marine ecosystems.
In conclusion, this protocol will come to fruition once we see enormous scalability improvements in Ethereum and other base chains (assuming DMTR becomes available on other blockchains). Expect big things from it as it continues to forge new partnerships and expand its blockchain and AI services range.
Ways to stay in the loop with Dimitra (DMTR)
– Official website and the DMTR token
– YouTube
– Telegram
– Discord
Further reading and additional resources
Ways to support my work
• Check out this post for various affiliate links and promotions you can use to top up (or kick start) your crypto portfolio. By using these, I earn a small commission at no extra cost.
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Disclaimers
• N.B. None of this is financial advice; I am not a financial advisor. You are ultimately responsible for crypto investments, let alone in any asset class.
• The opinions expressed within this piece are my own and might not reflect those behind any news outlet, person, organisation, or otherwise listed here.
• Please do your own research before investing in any crypto assets, staking, NFTs or other products affiliated with this space.
• For transparency, DMTR accounts for roughly 1% of my crypto portfolio. However, depending on the project’s progress, I plan to increase this allocation over time.
• Information is correct at the time of writing.
Featured image courtesy of Dimitra > Media Brand Assets