Content of article:
- Federal licensing for crypto exchanges
- New definitions for new assets
- Commodities vs. securities
- Outlook for the bill in the Ag Committee
blockchain platform. 
The two agricultural giants company Bunge and Cargill have team up to build a blockchain platform that going to managed the sector of agricultural which will be tested first in Brazil.
These two company which known as world largest grains company and oilseed companies.
The world's largest grains and oilseeds companies, American giants Bunge and Cargill, have joined together to create the joint venture Covantis, which will use blockchain technology in the agricultural sector in Brazil.
The unprecedented project foresees the exchange of information between all members of Covantis, which also includes the participation of other agribusiness giants such as the French Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), the Chinese state-owned company Cofco International and the Dutch multinational Glencore Agriculture.
Together the companies that make up Covantis move around 550 million tons of grains and oilseeds every year.
The goal of the partnership is to unify the sector's data and facilitate communication between all participants, improving the logistics processes at the ports, among other things, all using blockchain. The official platform is expected to be launched next year.
Companies negotiate around 500 thousand contracts for purchase and sale each year in Brazil and the first tests for the platform were carried out at the Port of Santos between July and August this year and involved 11 companies, including trading companies, originators and grain producers. Covantis CEO Petya Sechanova said:
"Covantis should become the leader of operations in our sector and will be able to streamline processes, modernize and digitize them."
According to the CEO, the choice of Brazil was due to the complexity of its market. Speaking to the Valor publication, Sechanova said the country saw “chain sales” or “string sales” taking place, in which dozens of intermediaries needed to act for the shipments to happen, even though only final buyers and senders have contact with the physical shipment.
Marcos Amorim is the director of the contracts committee of the National Association of Cereal Exporters (Anec), whose associated trading companies are actively working with Covantis. He said it’s a complicated and difficult process:
“Imagine that each shipment has both a purchase contract and a sales contract, that there are phytosanitary certificates attached to them and a series of other documents required by different countries. And that ships form lines and must have a certain loading rate. This greatly escalates the operation at the port and the delay at any end implies losses for the entire chain.”
Within the trading companies, the process generates a somewhat messy work flow, that is currently managed by email, phone and WhatsApp. Arrival and departure dates, ship flags and cargo volumes circulate non-stop, especially during peak seasons. But with mistakes happening daily, so too expenses and fines mount up.
But with Covantis all this information circulates using blockchain technology, which, according to its participants, helps the flow of information, prevents fraud and ensures the security of shared data.
Sechanova also says that Covantis' ambition is to gradually bring together all the grains and oilseeds shipments in bulk from its founding companies in the world.
Argentina and the United States are the next countries in which Covantis plans to use its blockchain solution.
The project start after the bill that propose by Agricultural House Committee was introduce
Two bills introduced last week looked to solidify the roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — respectively the regulators for securities and commodities in the United States. The bills featured many of the usual suspects in legislation touching on crypto but one less familiar face was U.S. Representative Mike Conaway (R-TX).
Currently serving as the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, Conaway has been in Congress since 2005, predating Bitcoin’s whitepaper. His tenure has not been especially crypto-heavy. Nonetheless, he’s behind a bill that could transform how the U.S. handles crypto exchanges, which is important because it's the Ag Committee that governs the CFTC.
Federal licensing for crypto exchanges
The Digital Commodity Exchange Act looks to give crypto exchanges the option to register with the CFTC, a national regulator, rather than going state-by-state to get money transmitter or money service provider licensing. “We got the patchwork of state-based regulations that are really hard to comply with,” Conaway explained to Cointelegraph.
The reason that crypto exchanges have had such a time getting licensing is due to general uncertainty as to what exactly to call cryptocurrencies themselves. The Digital Commodity Exchange act would move the standards more in the direction of calling them commodities.
New definitions for new assets
Moreover, the bill, alongside the Securities Clarity Act that Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) has introduced to the House Financial Services Committee, would put together a framework that assumes that certain new crypto assets are treated as commodities once they are distributed. Conaway explained to Cointelegraph:
“If it meets our definition, it would automatically fall into the category of commodity. [...] We have no idea what kind of assets are going to develop over time. When you put new rules in place they’re never dynamic enough to accommodate what’s going on.”
The specifics of that definition may well get murky. The bill defines a “digital commodity” as:
“Any form of fungible intangible personal property that can be exclusively possessed and transferred person to person without necessary reliance on an intermediary, and which does not represent a financial interest in a company, partnership, or investment vehicle.”
Concepts similar to “representing a financial interest in a company” are critical to existing securities law and are, consequently, the subject of their fair share of debate.
The bill, according to Conaway, saw its impetus in 2018, around the time that LabCFTC founder Daniel Gorfine testified before the Agriculture Committee. “We did it the old-fashioned way, we had the hearing before we had the legislation,” Conaway joked.
Commodities vs. securities
But why does it matter if the CFTC runs the show? The CFTC is more of a principles-based regulator, Conaway noted. The idea is that commodities operate independent of a third party who could potentially run a swindle on investors. If you invest in oil futures, the price might tank — as it famously did in April — but you can’t blame that on BP.
The role of the SEC in crypto has been controversial, especially following the commission’s clampdown on Telegram’s GRAM distribution. “We’re trying to distinguish between what looks like a securities offering, which is clearly the SEC’s deal, and the ongoing trading of assets,” Conaway said. Effectively, that would mean reinforcing the SAFT Framework of dividing initial securities offerings from tokens, a format that many saw to be a thing of the past.
Outlook for the bill in the Ag Committee
Currently, Conaway’s bill has co-sponsorship from two other Republicans on the Agriculture Committee, as well as several members of the Blockchain Caucus. But what does that mean for getting the committee’s democrats on-board?
“We’ve had a couple of members of the committee that were really close to wanting to sign onto the bill,” Conaway said “We think that we’ll wind up with good bipartisan support.” He did not specify what stopped initial support, but things have been contentious around Congress lately.
Regardless, the bill will live on past Conaway’s time on the committee. This Congress is ending and he, at 72, is not running again. “It’s beyond the pale. My replacement is already in place,” he said.
Kristin Smith, head of the Blockchain Association, noted that the new legislation is a major step, but certainly will see updates before possibly becoming law. She nonetheless described it as:
“The first time we've seen a proposal of a regulatory framework for how we can ensure that the markets are strong and also carve out a regulated space for these digital commodities. So these are obviously first proposals. And at the end of the Congress, we don't expect any immediate action.”
Earlier today, the CFTC filed charges against a trading platform that was offering futures in Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin to U.S. investors without registering in the country. While regulators have acknowledged Bitcoin to be a commodity for several years, Ether and Litecoin have operated with less certainty
Source:
Cointelegraph.com
btcnewz.com
