EthicHub
= blockchain-based ethical coffee project
Contextual Quote
"a positive example is EthicHub. Instead of assuming farmers will instantly adapt to blockchain-based lending, they work through local nodes—trusted members of farming communities who act as bridges between smallholder farmers and DeFi tools. With some great work done with communities in Chiapas (Mexico) and beyond, they have managed to prioritise relationships and real-world usability over technology alone."
- Tereza Bizkova [1]
Description
1. Joshua Dávila (interviewing Giulio Quarta):
"EthicHub is simply a protocol that allows investors in the North of the world — from people with money, who want to invest in good, regenerative things and make a profit — to invest in regenerative agriculture projects, in particular high quality coffee production, in Latin America, in particular in Mexico.
It works very well and it has worked since 2017 because in Mexico the cost of credit is very high, with many bad loans offerings: EthicHub, with a clearing system and using some elements of blockchain technology, allows people to invest in these projects, while allowing farmers to have liquidity to make productive investments, produce good coffee, and then sell it.
There are a lot of different stakeholders, there are the stakers, the farmers, the local cooperatives like the one lucía is part of, that make it all work."
2. Blockchain for Good:
"Ethic Hub, founded in 2019 in Spain, is a company that connects investors with small-scale farmers so they can carry out their harvests, particularly of coffee, and sell their products on markets without intermediaries.
The goal is for 50% of the profits to go directly to them.
Ethic Hub specifically targets unbanked farmers living in Mexico. The team has developed a peer-to-peer financing (crowdlending) platform where numerous small investors, with a minimum of 20 euros, fund the agricultural activities of small farming communities while receiving interest on the loans."
Discussion
The Crypto-Economic Aspects of the EthicHub Financing Model
From an interview of Blockchain for Good with the founder, Jori Armbruster. Translated from the French.
- "BfG: Let's start with the stablecoin* lending solution you are developing. How do the farmers convert the xDAI into their local currency?
JA: For conversions, we rely on established exchange platforms. For example, in Mexico, it's Bitso. The farmer cooperatives we work with receive the xDAI, convert it to Mexican pesos via Bitso, and send the funds to their members."
* BfG: Why did you choose xDAI?
JA: When we launched Ethic Hub in 2018, we were on Ethereum, because at the time it was almost the only operational blockchain that allowed us to do what we wanted to do. However, we migrated to xDAI because the fees* were much lower, at a time when Ethereum's success had made its fees unaffordable. Furthermore, xDAI allowed us to use the same stablecoin to pay for fees and invest in loans, which is very convenient for users.
* BfG: You also work with Celo, don't you?
JA: Absolutely! For Celo, it was both their low fees and their focus on impact projects that led us to integrate them into our solution. Furthermore, Celo is focused on building easy-to-use wallets for mobile phones, which would allow us in the medium term to lend directly to farmers, without going through cooperatives. Celo also wants to build as diverse a stablecoin ecosystem as possible. For example, they want to create a stablecoin in Mexican pesos, which would be very interesting for the communities we work with."
The role of the Ethix Token
- "BfG: You also mentioned in your presentation investments in Ethix, the Ethic Hub token. Can you describe its function in a bit more detail?
JA: Yes, the Ethix token serves as both a default compensation system and an incentive mechanism for our platform.
Our tokenomics* are structured as follows: the more loans we grant to farmers, the greater the demand for the Ethix token, because a contribution is taken from each loan granted to fund the compensation system.
If we keep our default rates low, we create more demand for Ethix than the amount of Ethix that is sold to compensate for defaulted loans. Because of this increase in demand, the value of Ethix also rises. Now, if the Ethix token is more valuable, then our default compensation system will be safer and more attractive, and the incentives to participate in the system will be greater.
* BfG: How does this default compensation system work?
JA: Fundamentally, we have two liquidity pools: the xDAI pool, which is used to manage the creation and repayment of loans, and an Ethix staking pool. When you invest in Ethix, you are doing so on behalf of the farmers. If they default, the Ethix will be sold to compensate you. It's a system that works well: the Ethix pool is worth ten times more than the xDAI loan pool. This system allows us to cover all payment defaults, which represent only 2% of the total number of loans we grant.
I would like to take this opportunity to mention that we are looking to become a DAO* rather than a traditional company. We hope to make this change in the near future, but for now, we are proceeding step by step."