Every action will be recorded for all eternity.
ㆍA South Korean startup, uLikeKorea, has devised a way to use data to manage cattle growth and health.
ㆍThey have established a smart farm using blockchain technology to raise and transparently distribute livestock.
ㆍThe blockchain server may store information about your unique and immutable self.
What does the Bio-Capsule tell me?
Almost all of this information is recorded by the pill. uLikeKorea, which operates a livestock smart farm in South Korea, has developed bio-capsules to gather biometric information about cattle raised on farms. The bio-capsules are orally administered to the cattle and are equipped with ICT technology. Once ingested, the capsules settle in the cow’s rumen and transmit accurate biometric data to the server every 10 minutes. (Don’t be alarmed, these bio-capsules are made from sugarcane, a non-toxic material.) They provide precise health data such as rumination movements, physical activity, feed intake, real-time core body temperature, activity level, and pH analysis. This system allows farm managers to monitor the well-being of the cattle, detect signs of calving, and recognize diseases early even when they are not physically present on the farm.
Record immutable data
How is a smart farm operated through a bio-capsule ingested by livestock? This bio-capsule, called ‘LiveCare,’ collects various data from livestock every 10 minutes. The data is then analyzed by an artificial intelligence program to categorize it into different topics using big data analysis. There are five key indicators: management index (for precise healthcare management for over six months), health index (for controlling disease infections like tuberculosis, foot-and-mouth disease, and brucellosis), negative index (measuring the frequency of clean water intake, at least six times daily), welfare index (includes methane concentration in the barn, temperature and humidity, floor temperature, water temperature, and feed management), and pedigree index (evaluating parent cows with good genetics).
The data is sent to a blockchain-based cloud server securely managed. In the past, farms used name tags on cattle to record their health information, which could be easily tampered with. However, uLikeKorea’s smart farm records each cow’s history on the blockchain server, making it impossible to tamper with. Once data is recorded in a block, it cannot be changed, ensuring the integrity of the data. uLikeKorea records valuable cattle health data in each block and uses it for a transparent distribution process. This system is also beneficial for consumers, as they can trace the history of livestock from breeding to meat processing and distribution. In the future, ULikeKorea plans to apply this blockchain-based traceability platform to livestock products and plant smart farms and all food groups.
Prove yourself transparently
In the future, it may not be a cow that eats a bio-capsule; it may be me. What if we succeed in mass-producing humanoid robots that think and behave like humans, and the human population becomes 50:50? In a world where humanoids that mimic me will be sold, I must prove I am real with unforgeable data. We may have to take bio-capsules and soon have all our memories stored on giant blockchain servers: our health information, medical data, family relationships, thoughts, and philosophies — unforgeable and untouchable. A blockchain is a distributed ledger that organizes data into blocks and links them together in a chain. Each block contains multiple records of transactions, and these blocks are linked together through encrypted hash values. This is what the human world of the future will look like. There will come a time when you have to prove that you are the unique block that connects you to the world — a block that can never be altered.
