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Copyright © Virgo Plant Limited 2019, All rights reserved.
Virgo Chain Whitepaper Transform agriculture and farming practice
Version 1.9.6
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
Page 1 of 42
Contants
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Flower industry and market overview across the world ................................................................ 4
Flowers in the USA, Canada, Mexico markets .......................................................................... 6
Flowers in Asia & China markets .................................................................................................. 6
Asia Agriculture Market of Production of Vegetable ............................................................ 7
Chinese Herbal and Medicine Market ........................................................................................ 9
The current situation of Chinese Herbal and medicine industry market ............... 9
Problem ...................................................................................................................................................... 10
The Asian market and its consumption ................................................................................... 10
Water, electricity, Small land size and other limiting factors ........................................... 10
Small and fragmented holding size ................................................................................ 10
Water and electricity will be key limiting factors ........................................................ 11
Self-sufficiency policy .......................................................................................................... 11
R & D .................................................................................................................................................. 12
Virgo chain solution ................................................................................................................................ 13
Virgo plant factory ......................................................................................................................... 13
The core technologies .................................................................................................................. 13
Virgo Product Assurance (VPA) ................................................................................................. 14
Transparency highlights good ethics and practices ............................................................ 15
Increased Traceability in agriculture supply chain ...................................................... 16
Ensuring Food safety and security with blockchain technology in the agriculture
supply chain ............................................................................................................................ 16
Supporting Small-scale farmers and cooperatives .................................................... 16
Transforming transactions in agriculture supply chain ............................................. 16
Virgo Chain and Blockchain ................................................................................................................. 17
Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 17
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
Page 2 of 42
Data storage ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Virgo chain ........................................................................................................................................ 21
Blockchain ......................................................................................................................................... 22
Virgo Chain Token (VCT) ....................................................................................................................... 24
Token Distribution .......................................................................................................................... 26
Road Map and Milestone ............................................................................................................ 27
Financial Plan ............................................................................................................................................ 28
Team ............................................................................................................................................................ 32
Legal ............................................................................................................................................................. 35
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
Page 3 of 42
Abstract
This whitepaper describes in detail how Virgo chain can disrupt and transform agriculture and
farming practice with the launch of a smart blockchain based, closed agricultural ecosystem.
This high-throughput consortium connects investors, farmers, processors, distributors,
retailers, customers and regulators. Blockchain technology brings full anonymity in the
agriculture supply chain, which would create an immutable and trust-worthy platform, that is,
Virgo Products Assurance (VPA). As the heart of the Virgo chain, VPA aims to create a new
agriculture and food product standard facilitating the tracking of faulty or unsafe products
back to their source, the verification of records and assets to ensure products quality, safety
and security. Virgo chain is being designed to transfer the agriculture and farming into a new
era through the innovative use of the cutting-edge technologies, including IoT-based plant
factory, net-zero and energy-efficient farming technologies, AI, big data automation,
blockchain, flower and food process engineering and the standardization of products and
services.
The Virgo chain team is supported by both Virgo Plant Factory Limited founded in August 2019
and Cenith Energy Corp in August 2002. Since its inception in the August 2002 in Ontario,
Cenith Energy Corp has been endeavoring itself in researching & designing, engineering,
managing, and manufacturing of clean energy and environment protection businesses. So far,
it has achieved the forefront of the world in developing smog solutions, water treatment
solutions, organic wastes, solar farms, smart devices, plant factory, future house, and featured
townships economically.
Businesses are waking up to the opportunities presented by a rapidly- growing flower and
food market in Asia, which may be worth more than US$5 trillion each year by 2030, as imports
are substituted with high-value and locally-produced flowers and food, as per the Asia
Agriculture Status Report. The major problems afflicting the flower and food market, include
lack of finance, lack of standardization in processing and packaging, counterfeiting or food
fraud. The Virgo Chain Coin project is set up to solve the aforementioned problems, with a
particular focus on Asia Pacific Area.
The first round of financial plan is to raise US$ 88,000,000, of which the US$10,000,000 is used
to create the first version of the above ecosystem; while the other US$3x26,000,000 are to
build 3 advanced, IoT based plant factories, which are for rose growing in Guangzhou, Beijing,
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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and Shanghai. Each of the rose plant factories occupies an agricultural land of 100 acres
minimum. Return on investment (ROI) is within 3 years beginning with the completion of
construction of the plant factory. The US$ 88 million are worth 20% of the initial share A in
the financing of Virgo Plant Factory Limited.
Flower industry and market overview across the world
If we look at history of commercialized flowers of the world, we will find that flowers have
been demand dramatically from 1980, where the traditional transportation of flowers
dominated, to 2025, where that modern and internet will do so. Below is a projection from
SAF to show where consumers buy fresh flowers by number of stems:
The total land area of the world was 650,180 hectares, and global floriculture was estimated
to be US$ 55 billion dollars in 2015. Below show those typical countries, which were mainly
exported the flowers to the world in 2015 based on the lands they used in their countries.
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Below showed the percentage of each country, which was mainly exported the flowers to the
world in 2015.
Take above picture as an example that Colombia had a larger presence in USA, Canada, UK,
Japan, and Korea; while Ecuador larger presence in Russia, Germany, China, and Spain.
1,426
4,039 4,500
7,532
6,750
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
Ethiopia Kenya Ecuador Colombia Holland
The area of each country,
which was mainly exported the flowers to the world in 2015
6%
17%
19%
31%
28%
% of each country, which was mainly exported the flowers to the world in
2015
Ethiopia Kenya Ecuador Colombia Holland
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Flowers in the USA, Canada, Mexico markets
In 2017, 80% flowers were imported in USA, of which, 65% were from Colombia, 20% Ecuador,
6% EU, 4% Canada and 2% Mexico, while 20% were domestically grown. Below were the value
and origin of flowers imported to the USA 2012 to 2016:
The cut flower sectors were greatly reduced since the 1980s due to imports, wholesales in
2015 was US$374 million. Products mix has changed significantly since the 1990s, and now
specializes on flowers not imported in large quantities: Lilium, delphinium, gerberas, iris, tulips,
and peonies. Of the 420 producers (in 1992, 900), 78% of the cut flower value are from
California, 3% Florida, 4% Hawaii, 6% Washington, 3% Oregon, 3% New Jersey, and 2%
Michigan. Currently the cut flower growers have launched aggressively “locally grown”
campaign to promote consumption of domestic flowers.
The consumption growth is 10-12%, exported to USA 4-5% from Canada and Mexico. There
are 85% retail florist, 10% supermarket, 5% internet. About 60% of the stems sold in Canada
are grown in the USA.
Flowers in Asia & China markets
Below showed comparison how each main country exported the stemmed flowers to Japan,
China, Korea, and Australia between 2013 and 2017:
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Asia Agriculture Market of Production of Vegetable
Asia is home to more than half of the global population and plays a significant role in the global
food chain. While its high demand makes it a decisive component in the market, the low
percentage of exports in food and agriculture shows the recurrent struggles the continent has
to face. The main challenges that Asia presents when it comes to meeting the food and
agriculture demands are related to its land and resources:
- The arable soil is limited, and its quality keeps deteriorating while Asia’s production of
yields is lower than in most other regions.
- The water is depleting and the management of this and other resources is poor.
- The farming practices used are inefficient and the inadequate infrastructure is limiting
any future production.
Over the past 50 years, Asia has seen some improvement regarding all of those points, but has
yet to get to a level where it can satisfy its growing population, meet its high demand for food
and address all the environmental concerns.
Key Facts:
• The Asia region is a decisive component in the global food chain, accounting for 19%
of total global food and agriculture exports and 31% of total food and agriculture
imports
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• Asia’s large and growing population, coupled with rising incomes and a burgeoning
middle class, will continue to drive demand for food & agricultural commodities and
resources
• On the other hand, Asia cannot produce enough to support itself. Limited arable land,
inadequate water and poor resource management, low farm yields, environmental
and soil degradation and infrastructure inadequacy are limiting production.
Consequently, Asia and especially China’s need for imports and investment locally and
abroad is likely to increase
• Asia agribusiness and food & agriculture companies are likely to grow in size and scope
to meet the increasing demand, national policies, rising organizational capabilities,
and integration and consolidation throughout the value and supply chains.
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Chinese Herbal and Medicine Market
The current situation of Chinese Herbal and medicine industry market
In 2016, the State Council promulgated the Outline of the Strategic Plan for the Development
of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2016-2030), paving the way for the development of the
Chinese medicine industry in the next 15 years. The outline points out that by 2030, the
coverage of Chinese medicine services will be fully covered, and the ability of Chinese
medicine health services will be significantly enhanced, making greater contributions to
economic and social development. In terms of details, “establish a system for monitoring and
information management of chronic diseases and Chinese medicine, promote the
establishment of a community health management model that integrates Chinese medicine
content, carry out Chinese medicine health interventions for high-risk groups, and improve
the health management level of traditional Chinese medicine at the grassroots level”,
“Developing the development of traditional Chinese medicine non-drug therapy” To give full
play to its unique role in the prevention and treatment of common diseases, frequently-
occurring diseases and chronic diseases." The government has always maintained a supportive
attitude towards the Chinese medicine industry and set the tone for long-term development.
The unique role of proprietary Chinese medicines in disease prevention and health care is
gradually gaining importance.
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Problem
The Asian market and its consumption
Asia’s ever-growing population presents the number one challenge that the continent has to
face when it comes to its output in the global market. The predicted increase is of up to 5.1
billion people inhabiting these regions by 2050. China and India alone account for a majority
of the global cereal and palm oil consumption. While the first also takes on 25% and 27% of
soy and meat consumption in the world.
The continuous growth in Asian economies plays an impact on both the amount of food
consumption and the composition. Compared to Europe and the US, which forecast a GDP
growth of 1.9% and 2.5% respectively, Asia is predicted to see a GDP growth of about 6.5%
each year.
Water, electricity, Small land size and other limiting factors
As the population keeps growing and the demand for food gets higher, an increase in yields is
required to follow. What has stopped the Asian regions from taking action and already
meeting the current needs for food and agriculture?
Mostly, changes in cropping patterns and not enough modern seed varieties that can be
planted. The land is already only arable in part and the water resources are limited, while the
use of fertilizers and chemical pesticides over the years has accentuated the degrade of soil
quality. A solution would be to consolidate farmland and better manage the water resources,
but the high demand for both makes it difficult to apply this change.
Small and fragmented holding size
Despite being home to a majority of the global population, Asia has only got one-fifth of the
world’s agricultural land. Its average holding size is of 1 hectare and with the fragmentation
of holdings, it goes to about 3.2 parcels per holding. This leads to smallholders managing a
portion that makes up most of the available agricultural land, often rising to the majority of
arable soil.
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Water and electricity will be key limiting factors
Water plays another significant role in the limitation of Asia’s production. For example, China
presents a huge imbalance in water resources, with the North having over half of the
cultivated land but only about 20% of the water to keep them going. A temporary solution
was to rely on the water found underground, which has now led to a decline in water levels.
Not only that, a good part of the water available is often polluted due to the overuse of
fertilization and the growing industrialization of the regions. The Guangdong province of China
saw an example of the consequences to those practices when they noticed that nearly half of
the rice samples produced had excessive levels of cadmium.
India, instead, struggles with the water resources being repeatedly depleted as a result to the
excess consumption for food production. This is partly due to the highly inefficient method of
irrigation used, which took more water than necessary and still leaves a majority of the
cultivable land dry. As the contamination of water continues, sometimes even due to sewage
and agricultural run-off, India risks having a 50% water deficit within the next decade.
Electricity plays a decisive role in the environment-controlled greenhouse accurate growing.
However, the problem of uncoordinated development of power supply and power grid still
exist. For example, China’s energy production and consumption are reversely distributed. Too
much electricity is a burden of the underdeveloped areas, at the same time, the electricity
supply will be the challenge for most plant factories. The impact of energy consumption on
the modern agricultural environment around the world is enormous. This is an important
engineering issue like Tesla’s application to vehicles. The mission of energy conservation and
clean energy to agriculture may be greater than the electrification of vehicles or grids.
Self-sufficiency policy
Back in the 1960s, the Asian governments adopted a self-sufficiency policy in food production
with the intention of helping the rural poor population. Since rice and pulses were the main
foods being consumed, the policy guaranteed that the domestic production of that produce
could continue while trade was limited. The subsequent improvements in farming made sure
that the rural living conditions could also improve while also impacting the food consumption
patterns.
However, the regional governments that support the self-sufficiency policies have also
distorted the local markets due to minimum purchase price floors or import quotas. This has
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led to distress and strained national budgets, as demonstrated by Thailand’s rice program and
the Indian sugar market.
R & D
Overall, the commitment shown by Asia to improve its agriculture with due research and
development (R&D) is quite low when compared to the rest of the world. Especially when
measured by ratio of public agricultural R&D to agricultural GDP.
Nevertheless, the spending on research and development has been increasing since the 1990s
and its positive impact is visible in the growth of Asia’s agricultural productivity. As the
demand for resources increases alongside its population, this commitment plays an essential
role in the necessary transformations happening across Asia and the Pacific.
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Virgo chain solution
As the leading company in North America, Virgo team combined variety of high tech
professionals, including but not limited to growing and planting, bid data automation,
computer software and hardware, sensors, clean energies, engineering soils, liquid nutrition,
penetration of each layer of photosynthesis, extraction, N2 refrigeration & transportation
system, and blockchain technologies etc. Virgo chain solution aims to solve the problems in
the agriculture industry today.
Virgo plant factory
Virgo plant factory is being designed to transform the agriculture and farming through the
innovative use of the cutting-edge technologies including IoT-based growing process, net-zero
and energy-efficient farming technologies, AI and big data automation as well as smart
blockchain based agriculture ecological system technology. Virgo plant factory will take
greenhouse agriculture to new heights. We pursue better, smarter and more efficient
technologies that make human life better, smarter and more efficient.
Part I of a flower plant factory in Canada
The core technologies
The core technologies of the plant factory will include but are not limited to 1) process layout;
2) nutrient solution; 3) engineering soil & fertilizers; 4) penetration of special photosynthesis;
5) each layer of photosynthesis; 6) AI; 7) blockchain application, smart contracts, and relation
between our plant factories and customers; 8) clean energy power and battery system; 9)
cleanliness treatment of environment; 10) sewage treatment; 11) garbage disposal; 12) sensor
systems of temperature, relative humidity, sunlight, water quality, oxygen content, CO2, pH,
concentration, and etc.; 13) control systems, such as light board programming, irrigation
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programming, and fan programming; 14) building automation systems; 15) structural system;
16) macro and micro electrical systems, 17) HVAC; 18) irrigation & water system supply and
drainage systems; 19) computer hardware and software systems; 20) extraction, N2
refrigeration & transportation system; 21) product assurance ecosystem.
Part II of a flower plant factory in Canada
Virgo Product Assurance (VPA)
The process of the products assurance ecosystem should include each sector, such as, planting,
pest control, picking, refrigeration, package, extraction, and transportation of nitrogen
refrigeration, blockchain in a plant factory through agencies to customers.
That is, the formulation of production management and technical specifications should
include two aspects, first, hardware, including peripheral equipment and etc., and second,
software, including management, environment, and pest control; Plants in plant factories
should be of high quality, safety, and nutrition as the minimum standards. These plants should
be always recorded on computers, in order for customers to check in and out.
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The two directors, Sam Qin & Dr. George Yin,
were on the construction site of a plant factory in Canada
The Virgo chain products assurance ecosystem (VPA) is here to service the purpose and
consumers can now expect to see the entire histories of the products they buy, and hence
make more informed decisions.
A transparent supply chain assures consumers they’re supporting brands that align with their
personal ethics. It also allows retailers, manufacturers and others to confidently demonstrate
that they’re treating workers properly, sourcing in ethical ways and caring for the environment.
Transparency highlights good ethics and practices
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Increased Traceability in agriculture supply chain
With the replacement of the centralized record-keeping system with Blockchain in the
agriculture supply chain, we would create an immutable and trust-worthy platform. This
decentralized ledger would lead to the elimination of third-parties in the system and improve
traceability. A Blockchain-enabled platform would facilitate the tracking of unsafe products
back to their source, which can be extremely helpful in preventing illness and reducing the
cost of product recalls. This would be extremely helpful for tracking poultry and seafood,
which have been scrutinized for lack of transparency in the system.
Ensuring Food safety and security with blockchain technology in the agriculture
supply chain
Under the situation of extreme crisis like environmental disasters, violent political and ethnic
conflicts, etc., Virgo chain products assurance ecosystem can be helpful in many ways. This
includes transparent delivery of international aid, verification of records and assets, for
disintermediating the process of delivery and to respond more efficiently in the wake of
humanitarian emergencies.
Supporting Small-scale farmers and cooperatives
In the traditional system, smallholder farmers have always struggled for access of funds, lack
of significant credit histories, land ownership documentation, and other issues make it difficult
to access bank loans. Virgo chain can be used to provide access to capital to small farmers by
creating investment tokens and raising funds for their agricultural businesses. Virgo
blockchain technology in agriculture supply chain can also be used to provide insurance to
these rural farmers. Blockchain could help in fairer pricing through the whole agriculture value
chain, thus providing environmental/economic sustainability to smaller farms.
Transforming transactions in agriculture supply chain
A Blockchain-enabled transaction system built in Virgo chain would improve profitability for
farmers and everyone else associated with the supply chain. Using Blockchain technology,
transactions can be processed in real-time to employees, suppliers, and distributors, etc. into
their local or international bank accounts.
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Virgo Chain and Blockchain
Overview
Above graph shows an overview of the Virgo chain platform system architecture. You can see
four layers to the platforms:
• The data and blockchain layer consist of a set of data storage solutions, that can be
used to store and access autonomous driving and smart car related data. Solutions
include various forms of off-chain storage (see below) and on-chain storage for small
sets of data that can be directly stored on the blockchain. The blockchain layer
includes a timestamping service that can be used to store hashes of blobs of off-chain
data on the blockchain, in order to prove data integrity. A data manager implements
the logic required to store and access the data in different storage modules.
• The API layer provides three different APIs for services to use. These APIs provide
access to the underlying blockchain and data storage facilities. The specific APIs are
the following:
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o Payment API: The payment API provides access to the Virgo chain token
implementation and allows services to make settlement payments between
participants of the system.
o Service API: The service API provides primitives for service to request and process
data from the underlying data layer for use in their service implementation.
o Data API: The data API provides facilities for Virgo chain data sharing services,
agriculture operations or any third-party data feeds to submit data to the underlying
data storage layer.
• The service layer allows service providers to offer different services on the Virgo
chain platform. One service provided by Virgo chain is the food safety audit. Many
other third-party services can be implemented in parallel by participating service
providers.
• At the user layer, different apps provide user interfaces to end-users. These apps
integrate Virgo chain wallets providing payment options.
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Data storage
Data storage consists of three different types of storage, as illustrated in above
• Blockchain storage is meant for small sets of critical data that require strict
sequential access guarantees. Such data may include digital asset representations a
service may wish to implement, for example, non-fungible tokens.
• Distributed storage can be used for unstructured data of a medium size that may be
stored in a file system. A gateway to the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) 1 will be
provided for this purpose. IPFS is based on distributed hash tables. Distributed hash
tables distribute the so-called buckets holding data across a peer-to-peer network.
The hash value acts as a key for allowing nodes to address data on the network. IPFS
uses this data-structure to divide files into blocks and stored across the network. Files
1 The Interplanetary Filesystem Whitepaper. Juan Benet. IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System (DRAFT 3). https://github.com/ipfs/papers/raw/master/ipfs-cap2pfs/ipfs-p2p-file-system.pdf
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are identified and addressed by their hash values. Version history of each file is
maintained in a similar manner as in the Git version control system2.
• Centralized database storage is required by high-volume structured data. In the
future, this type of data storage might be possible in a decentralized form through
projects, such as BigChainDB3. Once sufficiently mature, Virgo chain might decide to
include such a decentralized structured data storage option. Centralized data storage
space can be provided by service providers or can be purchased from the Virgo chain
platform, depending on the type of database management system required.
Any off-chain data feed may make use of the blockchain timestamping service to store a
timestamped hash of the data on the blockchain. This acts as a digital fingerprint proving that
the data has not been modified since insertion.
2 Git version control system. https://git-scm.com/
3 BigChainDB https://www.bigchaindb.com/
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Virgo chain
At the heart of the Virgo chain solution is the Virgo chain products assurance ecosystem (VPA).
This high-throughput consortium blockchain provides a high-throughput distributed ledger.
The system is maintained by participating stakeholders in the Virgo chain ecosystem that
wishes to operate a Virgo chain node.
BLOCKCHAIN FOR FLOWERS AND FOOD PRODUCTS ASSURANCE ECOSYSTEM
1. The data layer is the bottom layer of Public Chain, storing transaction data,
encrypting data collected by Virgo chain OS and other interactive data. The data
layer encapsulates the chain structure of the underlying off-chain data storage, the
associated unsymmetrical public key data encryption technology and the
timestamping service that helps secure off-chain data by storing timestamped
digital fingerprints of off-chain data.
2. Second, the network layer is the network interaction layer responsible for data
transmission on the network. The network layer is built on the basis of the IP
communication protocol and P2P network, including distributed networking
mechanism, data dissemination mechanism, and data validation mechanism.
3. The consensus layer implements Virgo chain’s consensus protocol. The consensus
layer is based on Delegate Proof of Stake and token holders can vote the for the
nodes acting as validators and new block generators.
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4. The incentive layer is aimed at incentivizing Virgo chain partners for participating
in the Virgo chain ecosystem construction and project cooperation.
5. The smart contract layer is the provides a programmable virtual machine interface,
allowing the implementation of on-chain primitives used by the different Virgo
chain applications.
6. The application layer encapsulates various application scenarios and use cases of
Virgo chain, providing a programmable environment and API, transforming business
rules into an automatic execution contract through an intelligent contract.
Virgo chain will have the following characteristics:
• All participants in the blockchain system have to be registered
and authenticated users.
• Participants can use their holdings in Virgo chain token to vote for
validator nodes that participate in the consensus protocol.
• Blocks are issued by a very efficient voting consensus
protocol between the delegates.
• The voting protocol allows blocks to be issued when
required, removing the need for a block generation time and leading to fast
transaction confirmation.
Blockchain
Virgo chain is going to use Blockchain technology to revolutionize the agriculture and farming
practice. Virgo chain is being designed to optimize the agriculture and farming through the
innovative use of the cutting-edge technologies. Virgo chain ecosystem runs on blockchain
technology, bringing full anonymity, minimal processing times and minimal fees, fraud
prevention, etc. All information and transactions records are on blockchain driven by smart
contracts on a stable, open source platform.
We aim to develop innovative and highly sophisticated technology architecture to enable fast
and secure transactions without experiencing the drawbacks of the present system. Security
and ease of use are some of the core features of our agriculture and farm ecosystem, aligned
with our goal to create a new agriculture and food product standard.
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Blockchain is a shared ledger where transactions are permanently recorded by appending
blocks. The blockchain serves as a historical record of all transactions that ever occurred; from
the genesis block to the latest block, hence the name blockchain. It is the authoritative record
of every Bitcoin transaction that has ever occurred. Blocks are packages of data that carry
permanently recorded data on the blockchain network. It is a collection of transactions that
have occurred during a period of time.
The Virgo chain tokens will facilitate the tokenization of the agriculture and farm sector. We
believe that our token will be adopted widely across the agriculture and food processing
industry because of our win-win framework. Virgo chain tokens will be issued on the Ethereum
network and will be freely traded on the open market.
The smart contract technology will provide an automated and transparent system for records.
It provides indispensable advantages, such as openness, immutability, and censorship-
resistance of all stored information. The smart contracts, which will be carrying the
information, make these processes completely transparent. By using smart contracts
everything will be automated and set inside the system. And once the data, transaction, and
any other relevant information is connected to smart contract, it cannot be reversed, ensure
the manufacture products.
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Virgo Chain Token (VCT)
Name Virgo Chain Token
Symbol VCT
Decimals 18
Total Supply 1,000,000,000
Virgo chain token is fungible token implemented compliant with ERC-20 and ERC-223
standards.
The token has the following characteristics:
• Total supply of the token is large enough to scale in a growing market.
• Individual are small enough to allow for micro-payments.
• The token is divisible (18 decimals) to deal with a potential value increase.
• Total supply is limited to 1,000,000,000 tokens.
As an ERC-20 standard compliant token will implement the following interface:
contract ERC20Interface {
function name() view returns(string name);
function symbol() view returns(string symbol);
function decimals() view returns(uint8 decimals);
function totalSupply() public constant returns(uint);
function balanceOf(address tokenOwner) public constant returns(uint balance);
function allowance(address tokenOwner, address spender) public constant
returns(uint remaining);
function transfer(address to, uint tokens) public returns(bool success);
function approve(address spender, uint tokens) public returns(bool success);
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function transferFrom(address from, address to, uint tokens) public
returns(bool success);
event Transfer(address indexed from, address indexed to, uint tokens);
event Approval(address indexed tokenOwner, address indexed spender,
uint tokens);
}
In order to avoid tokens getting stuck by being sent to contracts instead of end-user wallets
in error, the ERC-223 standard extensions are also implemented. To this end the following
function is implemented:
function transfer(address _to, uint _value, bytes _data) returns (bool);
The token contract implements a few additional functionalities not covered by the ERC-20 and
ERC-223 standards.
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Token Distribution
The distribution of the token is as indicate above 20 % of the token’s total supply will be put
up for the private and public sale rounds, while the 80 % allocated to the team will be locked
up for five years.
80%
20%
Token Distrubution
Team Investors
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Road Map and Milestone
Below is a typical construction timeline of a plant factory. There will be around 16 months to
complete a plant factory from Design planning to Formal delivery. In the design period, Design
Q3 2019
•ERC-20 Token Deployed
•Community Building Activity
•Intial Service Provider Partnership
•Exchange Listing
Q4 2019
•First Virgo Chain Plant Factory initiated
•Virgo Chain platform blueprint
•Community Building Activity
Q1 2020
•Virgo Chain platfrom beta 1
•Centralized data storage
•Initial data feed intergration
•Second Virgo Chain plant factory begins
Q2 2020
•Virgo Chain platform beta 2
•Virgo Chain flowers and food safety audit begin
•Decentralized storage intergration
Q3 2020
•Virgo Chain platfrom release
•Token migration event
•First their party service betas
Q4 2020
•First Virgo Chain plant factory complete
Q1 2021
•Second Virgo Chain plant factory complete
•First batch of plants harvest with Virgo Chain
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plan will take 1 week, Initial design 4 weeks, Medium term design 6 weeks, Construction
drawing design 5 weeks, Design coordination 4 weeks, Bidding and tendering 4 weeks,
Construction coordination 7 weeks, Construction 9 weeks, Debugging and testing 4 weeks,
Test run 2 weeks, maintain 2 weeks, and Formal delivery 2 weeks.
In terms of Initial design, every typical plant factory will include 1) process layout; 2) nutrient
solution; 3) engineering soil; 4) special analysis of photosynthesis; 5) each layer of
photosynthesis, dropper and induction probe for each plant; 6) AI; 7) blockchain application:
8) clean energy power and battery system; 9) cleanliness treatment; 10) sewage treatment;
11) garbage disposal; 12) temperature, relative humidity, sunlight, water quality, oxygen
content, CO2, pH, concentration, and environment sensing systems, such as ratios; 13) control
of production process, such as light board programming, irrigation programming, and fan
programming; 14) building automation systems; 15) structural system; 16) macro and micro
electrical systems, 17) HVAC; 18) water supply and drainage and drainage; and 19) computer
hardware and software systems.
Financial Plan
To make an example, to build a typical plant factory, which are making rose growing, is around
USD$26 million; in the same time, the rose plant factory has to be stand on an agricultural
land of 100 acres minimum. Return on investment (ROI) is within 3 years beginning with the
completion of construction of the plant factory.
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To make an example, to build a typical plant factory, which are making tomato growing, is
around USD$23 million; in the same time, the tomato plant factory has to be stand on an
agricultural land of 70 acres minimum. Return on investment (ROI) is within 3 years beginning
with the completion of construction of the plant factory.
To make an example, to build a typical plant factory, which are making medical cannabis
growing, is around USD$26 million; in the same time, the medical cannabis plant factory has
to be stand on an agricultural land of 2 acres minimum. Return on investment (ROI) is within
3 years beginning with the completion of construction of the plant factory.
To make an example, to build a typical plant factory, which are making medical Epimedium
growing, is around USD$29 million; in the same time, the medical Epimedium plant factory
has to be stand on an agricultural land of 500 acres minimum. Return on investment (ROI) is
within 3 years beginning with the completion of construction of the plant factory.
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Table below is a financial analysis of the typical rose plant factory, which will show the sales
will meet the requirement within 3 years to pay off the primary investment of USD$26 million.
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Team
Sam Qin
Director of Virgo Plant Factory Limited
- Designed and built Ontario's first 100-acre net zero energy plant
factory
- Responsible for and participating in the construction of 6,700 net
zero energy houses in the three western provinces of Canada
- Responsible for developments of dozens of megawatts of solar
power ground plants in Ontario Canada
- Master degree of mechanical and material engineering, UWO,
Canada
Jason Li, PhD
Director of Virgo Plant Factory Limited
- Responsible for and participating in the construction of 6,700 zero-
energy houses in the three western provinces of Canada
- AI specialist
- Doctor degree of mechanical and material engineering, UWO,
Canada
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Hai Xie
Director of Virgo Plant Factory Limited
- Former private advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada
- Former assistant to CEO of SNC-Lavalin
- MBA, Canada
Joyce Li
Director of Virgo Plant Factory Limited
- Plant factory professional
- Clean energy professional
- Big health professional
MBA, Canada
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George Yin, PhD
Director of Virgo Plant Factory Limited
- New agricultural plant factory professional
- Clean energy system design and project construction expert
- North American experienced project management talent
- Microgrid and energy storage technology professional
- Energy efficient technology and system design professional
- Automation setup and system monitoring professional
Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada, Ph.D. in
Mechanical Engineering, Germany.
Julie Li
Director of Virgo Plant Factory Limited
Senior international financial investment professional
Rich experience in fund management
investment management expert of plant factories
MBA, China
Virgo Chain Whitepaper www.virgoplant.com
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Legal
PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THIS WHITEPAPER – IN PARTICULAR, THE IMPORTANT
INFORMATION SET OUT BELOW, INCLUDING THE FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT RISKS –
BEFORE MAKING YOUR DECISION TO PURCHASE VIRGO CHAIN TOKENS. IF YOU HAVE ANY
QUESTIONS ABOUT VIRGO CHAIN PLANT FACTORY LIMITED (THE “COMPANY”), ITS BUSINESS
PROJECTS, THE VIRGO CHAIN TOKENS OR OTHER RELATED CIRCUMSTANCES, PLEASE
CONSULT A COMPETENT BUSINESS, LEGAL, TAX OR OTHER ADVISOR. IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT,
OR IF ANY CIRCUMSTANCES REMAIN UNCLEAR TO YOU, YOU SHOULD REFRAIN FROM
MAKING A PURCHASE.
No prospectus and no offer to purchase securities or financial instruments
The planned Virgo chain tokens have been designed as pure utility tokens and are not,
therefore, intended to constitute securities or financial instruments according to their
structure. Consequently, the present whitepaper does not constitute a prospectus or an
offering document for securities or financial instruments and is not intended to constitute a
prospectus or an offering document for securities or financial instruments in any jurisdiction.
This whitepaper merely serves the purpose of describing the project but does not constitute
an offer to purchase, or an invitation to submit an offer to purchase the planned Virgo chain
tokens. Insofar, this whitepaper also does not constitute investment advice recommending to
purchase the planned Virgo chain tokens or to disinvest from other securities, financial
instruments or other assets. Incidentally, there is no investment brokerage or investment
advice of a security or financial instrument subject to authorization.
No official examination or approval
This whitepaper has not been examined or approved by any public authority, nor has it been
submitted to any public authority for examination or approval. There are no express statutory
requirements as to the contents of this whitepaper; the structure of this whitepaper and the
information contained herein are based exclusively on the decisions of the Company’s
management.
Formation of a legal relationship only on the basis of separate agreements, documents and/or
terms and conditions
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Any legal relations between a purchaser of the planned Virgo chain tokens and the Company
will not be established through this whitepaper but through separate agreements, documents
and/or terms and conditions governing the rights and obligations of the purchaser and of the
Company. Insofar, the provisions of the aforesaid agreements, documents and/or terms and
conditions will take precedence over the description given in this whitepaper in the event that
the description in this whitepaper is unclear in any respect.
Excluded purchasers
The token sale (including any pre-sales) is not for purchasers having their domicile, their tax
residence or their habitual residence in, or initiating the purchase of the tokens from or via, a
country where the sale or purchase of cryptocurrencies is prohibited or is permitted only
under certain conditions (e.g. an official license), which has been classified by the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) as a high-risk or other monitored jurisdiction with regard to money
laundering or terrorism financing, or against which an embargo or sanctions have been
imposed, in particular by the United States of America or the EU, (“excluded third parties”).
Such countries particularly include Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu and
Yemen, but also the United State of America, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore and
Cuba (“excluded countries”). This whitepaper may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in
whatever manner, or be passed on to third parties without this important information and the
further information about risks. Furthermore, this whitepaper may not, in whole or in part, in
whatever manner, be passed on to excluded third parties.
High risk of loss
The purchase of Virgo chain tokens involves significant risks. This is why a purchaser should
not use a substantial portion of his, her or its property to purchase Virgo chain tokens and be
able to bear the total loss of the money invested. Furthermore, purchasers should already
have experience in purchasing and/or holding cryptocurrencies issued by young companies,
be able to understand the economic and technical causal relations between the Company’s
entrepreneurial activities and the Virgo chain tokens and be able to assess how they will affect
the value of the planned Virgo chain tokens. A lack of relevant experience on the part of a
purchaser will nonetheless not give rise to increased obligations of the Company to provide
information.
Loan-based financing not recommended
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Purchasers are strongly advised against taking out a loan to finance the purchase of Virgo
chain tokens. This is because the obligations to pay capital and interest will continue to exist
even if the purchased Virgo chain tokens lose their value. In this case, the purchaser might
even have to le for personal bankruptcy.
Whitepaper does not replace competent advice
The purchasers' attention is drawn to the fact that this whitepaper gives only an overview of
the Company's planned investment and business activities and of the planned Virgo chain
tokens. This whitepaper cannot, however, replace business, legal, tax or other advice.
Consequently, before making a purchase, each purchaser should examine the opportunities
and risks involved on his, her or its own responsibility – where appropriate, assisted by
external advisors. Purchasers are particularly advised to obtain advice on the legal, regulatory
and tax consequences of a purchase.
The Company does not accept any liability for the personal economic objectives that
purchasers wish to achieve by purchasing Virgo chain tokens.
Calculations, forecasts, and forward-looking statements
All calculations and/or forecasts set out in this whitepaper are essentially based on the
experiences or assessments made by the Company’s management. In this respect, this
whitepaper additionally contains forward-looking statements – in particular, subjective
objectives for the further development of the Company’s business, which involve
uncertainties and risks, however. Such statements express the Company’s current
assessments and expectations with regard to future events. These assessments and
expectations may contain errors of perception or errors of judgment and may, therefore, turn
out to be inaccurate.
The calculations have been made with diligence and commercial prudence. In spite of this fact,
there is a possibility that certain events or developments which have not been taken into
consideration for the purposes of the calculations and/or forecasts will lead to significant
deviations between the results actually achieved by the Company and such calculations
and/or forecasts and, hence, possibly also to a loss of value of the planned Virgo chain tokens.
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Consequently, the Company cannot warrant that the developments and results described in
this whitepaper will actually be achieved. The purchaser bears the risk of deviating
developments and results.
Regulatory and other risks
The Company presumes that the issuance of the planned Virgo chain tokens by the Company,
the purchase of the planned Virgo chain tokens and the use of the planned Virgo chain tokens
(pure utility tokens) to pay for the Company’s products and services – in each case by non-
excluded third parties – are not subject to separate regulation. However, the regulatory and
quite generally the legal framework conditions for cryptocurrencies, blockchain and
distributed ledger technologies, smart contracts and their uses are, both nationally and
internationally, far from being fully developed and from providing certainty. There is,
therefore, a possibility that the issuance, purchase or administration of (including the trade in)
cryptocurrencies or the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for products or services will be
prohibited, in whole or in part, or will only be permitted subject to certain conditions, due to
national or international official or legal measures or due to court rulings. This may have
significant adverse effects on the Company’s business model (e.g. in the event that a public
authority or a court orders that the issuance of the Virgo chain tokens be reversed or the
Company discontinues its business) and on the bene t or value of the planned Virgo chain
tokens and may even result in the Company becoming insolvent or in the planned Virgo chain
tokens becoming entirely useless or worthless.
In the same manner, there is a possibility that third-party companies providing ways to trade
in cryptocurrencies, such as the planned Virgo chain tokens, will be prohibited from
maintaining the trading venue operated by them in the absence of an appropriate official
license; if this happens, there may be no trading venues where to exchange the planned Virgo
chain tokens for other cryptocurrencies or at currencies (i.e. legal currencies, such as the Euro).
This, too, could result in the issued Virgo chain tokens becoming useless or worthless to their
purchasers.
Utility tokens do not grant any property rights or administrative rights in the Company
The planned Virgo chain tokens are intended to be structured as pure utility tokens with which
to pay for the Company's products and services. The planned Virgo chain tokens will not grant
any property rights or administrative rights in the Company, i.e. they will not grant any share
in the Company’s profits or losses or in an increase or decrease in the value of the Company’s
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assets or any rights to vote when resolutions are made at the Company, rights to attend
shareholder meetings of the Company or other shareholder rights. As pure utility tokens, the
Virgo chain tokens are not suitable as an investment in the development of the Company’s
business.
No repayment
As the Virgo chain tokens will be pure utility tokens, the purchase prices paid for the issued
Virgo chain tokens will not be paid back in exchange for the return of the issued Virgo chain
tokens. Purchasers of the planned Virgo chain tokens must, therefore, take into consideration
that the money used by them to purchase Virgo chain tokens will be bound within the tokens
and can, at best, be exchanged again for at currencies via third-party trading systems, to the
extent that such systems are available. To the extent that a third party who is willing to
exchange at currencies for the purchased Virgo chain tokens cannot be found, there is a risk
that the purchased Virgo chain tokens will be useless or worthless to the purchaser.
Tradability and fluctuations in the value of the Virgo chain tokens
A promise that the planned Virgo chain tokens will be tradable cannot be given. Even though
the Company seeks to have the planned Virgo chain tokens listed for trading on one or more
trading systems, there is a possibility that the Company will not succeed in finding one or more
appropriate trading systems that are willing and able to list the planned Virgo chain tokens for
trading. Even if the Company succeeds in having the planned Virgo chain tokens listed for
trading at one or more trading venues, there is a possibility that there will be no trade for lack
of interested purchasers or sellers.Even if and to the extent that the Company succeeds in
having the planned Virgo chain tokens listed for trading on one or more trading systems,
purchasers should be prepared for very significant fluctuations, including short-term
fluctuations, in the determined price and, hence, in the value of the purchased Virgo chain
tokens. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the prices or values of the planned Virgo chain
tokens develop differently on different trading systems. How the planned Virgo chain tokens
perform on trading systems may be greatly influenced by the performance of other
cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ether, even if the Company’s operational business does
not provide any reason or basis for such changes in performance (if any).
The Company does not guarantee that the trading systems where the planned Virgo chain
tokens will be listed for trading (if any) will determine the prices in a transparent manner or
will be able to meet the legal or official requirements (if any).
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A purchaser should further take into consideration that the trade in purchased Virgo chain
tokens will probably involve costs, which will have to be borne additionally by the purchaser
and will have a further adverse effect on the value of the Virgo chain tokens purchased and/or
traded.
Dependence on computer infrastructure
Both the Company’s operational business model and the functionality of the planned Virgo
chain tokens depend to a large extent on the existence and permanent availability of a well-
functioning computer infrastructure. This particularly applies to the Company, to purchasers
of the planned Virgo Chain Token, and to customers of the Company. Any problems with or
burden on a well-functioning computer infrastructure (including Internet with appropriate
capacities) would place a burden on the establishment and further development of the
operational business but also on the possibility to use the planned Virgo chain tokens and
might even render the latter entirely useless or worthless. If the required infrastructure is not
sufficiently functional, this may significantly reduce the speed with which transactions
involving the planned Virgo chain tokens are handled and, hence, have a significant and lasting
adverse effect on the usability or value of the planned Virgo chain tokens.
Operational risks encountered by the Company
Like any other company, in particular, any other young company, the Company is subject to
operational risks. The development of the planned products and services, for example, may
be significantly delayed or turn out to be impossible, in whole or in part. Furthermore, there
is a possibility that the Company’s planned products or services will not be accepted on the
market. In addition, there is a possibility that the Company will be unable to obtain and
maintain sufficient licenses that are required for its operational business or that the licenses
granted are challenged by third parties, which can normally result in a large amount of costs
being incurred in defending claims and/or enforcing rights. Moreover, competitors or the
development of new products and technologies or the regulation of the Company’s
operational business, whether at national or international level, may place a significant
burden on the Company’s operational business. Operational risks, in particular those listed
above, may lead to the Company’s insolvency. At the same time, operational risks may have a
significant and lasting adverse effect on the planned Virgo chain tokens and even render them
entirely useless or worthless.
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Insufficient funding of the Company
As a young company, the Company depends on generating sufficient funds to set up and
further develop its business (including maintaining an infrastructure for using the planned
Virgo chain tokens). The plan is to use the proceeds from the issuance of the planned Virgo
chain tokens for this purpose, for a start. If the Company does not succeed in generating
sufficient funds, e.g. if the Virgo chain token ICO fails, there is a risk that the Company will be
unable to set up and further develop its business necessary, or even file for insolvency. Such
a development might have a significant and lasting adverse effect on the usability or value of
the planned Virgo chain tokens and might even render them entirely useless or worthless.
Technical risks
The planned Virgo chain tokens, by their very nature, are technology-based. Like with all other
technology-based products or services, their usability and their value are subject to a large
number of technical risks that cannot be eliminated by the Company. This particularly includes
system errors, code failures, programming errors, hardware failures, loss and/or theft of data,
hacks and/or attacks by hackers or technology-based reductions in the speed with which
transactions can be handled. Technical risks may have significant and lasting adverse Effects
on the usability or value of the Virgo chain tokens and might even render them entirely useless
or worthless.
Risks involved in the personal administration of tokens
Like any other cryptocurrency, the planned Virgo chain tokens are subject to risks arising from
personal administration. The risks arising from personal administration are, in particular,
failure or theft of the hardware used to store the purchased Virgo chain tokens or loss of
access codes, user names, passwords or private keys for accessing the infrastructure used to
store the purchased Virgo chain tokens (e.g. wallets) such that the purchased Virgo chain
tokens can no longer be disposed of and are, hence, lost for the purchaser. There is
additionally a risk that transactions which have been initiated incorrectly cannot be reversed
because of how the blockchain technology works and that the transferred Virgo chain tokens
are, hence, irretrievably lost. Furthermore, it needs to be taken into consideration that using
inherited Virgo chain tokens is, de facto, impossible because of the technology used for the
planned Virgo chain tokens and also because there is no or only an insufficiently developed
legal framework.
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Tax risks
Not only are there no unambiguous and clear legal framework conditions in connection with
cryptocurrencies, the national and international tax classification of transactions involving
cryptocurrencies also remains to be finally clarified, both for the Company and for purchasers
of cryptocurrencies. There is, therefore, a possibility that transactions involving
cryptocurrencies will, both on the part of the Company and on the part of purchasers, give
rise to tax burdens which place a burden on the Company’s operational business or which
reduce the usability or value of the purchased Virgo chain tokens or even render the latter
entirely useless or worthless.
Disclosure of personal data on the basis of official measures
Purchasers must have their identity verified in accordance with the anti-money laundering
rules and the rules to combat terrorism financing and tax evasion and disclose personal data
in relation to them to the Company before purchasing the planned Virgo chain tokens. The
purchasers of the planned Virgo chain tokens should be prepared that the Company may be
required to disclose the collected personal data to competent authorities on the basis of
national or international official or legal measures.
Interaction of risks and cumulative risks
Each of the described risks alone may have significant and lasting adverse effects on the
usability and value of the planned Virgo chain tokens. There is a possibility that several risks
will materialize simultaneously, trigger each other, or reinforce each other and that this will
enhance the significant and lasting adverse effects. Both the materialization of individual risks
and the materialization of cumulative risks may render the planned Virgo chain tokens entirely
useless or worthless.