Methods and apparatus for performing agricultural transactions
View Patent ↗Systems, apparatus, and methods for transacting, recording, validating and/or verifying agricultural products. The 2018 Farm Act rescinded industrial hemp from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Although industrial hemp has a variety of uses, the Government's biggest concern is the ingestion of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Commercial regulation typically balances a variety of factors: e.g., consumer protection, regulatory overhead, market competition, tax revenue, public policy, etc. In contrast, law enforcement has a singular purpose, and may go to extraordinary lengths to stop criminal activity. Various embodiments described herein provide a blockchain ledger-based supply chain that allows many commercial and regulatory entities to independently cooperate. Every transaction is permanently and transparently recorded within a chain-of-custody; the chain-of-custody enables a traceability. A variety of new applications are enabled by the blockchain ledger-based supply chain.
1. A method for real-time chain-of-custody based enforcement, comprising:
reading physical indicia of a bailment to retrieve a set of records from a distributed ledger associated with the bailment;
verifying a custody record of the set of records for the bailment where the custody record identifies an authorized area and a current route of the bailment;
measuring a physical characteristic of the bailment;
validating that the physical characteristic matches a previously recorded measurement record of the set of records for the bailment;
determining a current location of the bailment via a geospatial system; and
adding a new an attestation record to the distributed ledger to record a partial custodial relief in real-time at the current location.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein reading the physical indicia of the bailment comprises scanning a quick response code printed on a physically intact tamper-proof label; and
wherein the set of records are retrieved from a blockchain-based ledger based on the quick response code.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein verifying the custody record comprises determining that an identity of a person in possession of the bailment matches the custody record.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein verifying the custody record comprises determining that a current location of the bailment matches the custody record.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein verifying the custody record comprises determining that a previous location of the bailment matches the custody record.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the physical characteristic of the bailment comprises measuring a dry weight; and
the previously recorded measurement record comprises a previously measured dry weight.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the physical characteristic of the bailment comprises measuring a chemical composition; and
the previously recorded measurement record comprises a previously chemical composition.
8. An apparatus for real-time chain-of-custody based enforcement, comprising:
a reader configured to read physical indicia;
a geospatial subsystem configured to determine a current location of a bailment;
a network interface configured to communicate with a distributed ledger;
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to:
read the physical indicia of the bailment;
retrieve a set of records associated with the physical indicia from the distributed ledger associated with the bailment, where the set of records comprises a custody record that identifies an authorized area and current route; and
report the bailment for regulatory response when the set of records does not match the bailment.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising logic configured to identify a person in possession of the bailment; and
where the set of records includes a first custody record that identifies an authorized bailee.
10. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising logic configured to identify a source or destination of the bailment; and
where the set of records includes a consignment record that identifies at least one of a consignor and a consignee.
11. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising a sensor configured to measure a physical characteristic of the bailment; and
where the set of records includes a previously measured physical characteristic of the bailment.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the sensor measures a dry weight of the bailment.
13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the sensor measures a chemical composition of the bailment.
14. An apparatus for real-time chain-of-custody based enforcement, comprising:
a reader configured to read physical indicia;
a network interface configured to communicate with a distributed ledger;
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to:
read the physical indicia of a bailment;
retrieve a set of records associated with the physical indicia from the distributed ledger associated with the bailment, where the set of records identifies a plurality of previous locations of the bailment; and
report the bailment for regulatory response in a current jurisdiction based on at least one previous location of the bailment.
15. The apparatus of claim 14 , where the apparatus comprises a geospatial subsystem configured to determine a current location of a bailment.
16. The apparatus of claim 14 , where the reader comprises a camera configured to read quick response codes, the network interface comprises a cellular network interface, and the apparatus is associated with a law enforcement officer.
17. The apparatus of claim 16 , where the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to record a time, a location, and a query of the bailment made by the law enforcement officer.
18. The apparatus of claim 17 , where the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to:
transmit a request to override a smart lock associated with the bailment; and transfer custody of the bailment to the law enforcement officer.
19. The apparatus of claim 14 , where the set of records comprises a custody record that identifies an authorized area and current route.