BY DAYO ADESULU
PlanetWatch a French start-up that decentralizes and incentivizes environmental monitoring has announced the listing of the PLANETS token on Bitfinex Exchange.
Its authorities said PLANETS, will be listed on Bitfinex on June 4th, thereby making PLANETS are the first Algorand Standard Asset (barring stablecoins) to be supported on a major international exchange.
Claudio Parrinello, PlanetWatch’s CEO said: “This is a major milestone for PlanetWatch. Less than 18 months after company creation, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we have managed to demonstrate that our Smart City as a Service solution, based on community sensor deployment and crowdsourced air quality data, can deliver business-grade data feeds in a fast and cost-effective way.”
PlanetWatch revolutionizes the way we measure air quality by using the Algorand Blockchain, IoT-enabled sensors and AI-based data analysis. PlanetWatch incentivizes citizens to operate air quality sensors and earn token rewards for data streams.
Sean Lee, CEO of the Algorand Foundation, said: “We are delighted to see Bitfinex support the PLANETS token. The PlanetWatch team have shown outstanding vision and innovation in creating their “Smart City”aaS concept and choosing to create their utility token ecosystem on Algorand’s sustainable, carbon-negative blockchain network. We are excited to see the world discover the amazing potential of crowdsourced air quality monitoring and the PLANETS token.”
PlanetWatch is focusing on air pollution because it causes over 7 million deaths per year (source: WHO). In addition, recent studies provide evidence linking long-term exposure to air pollution with an increase in mortality from COVID-19 infection, as well as a significant risk of infection via aerosol in indoor spaces, where air quality can be a proxy for infection risks.
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PlanetWatch is strongly supported by high-profile partners such as Algorand, the Algorand Foundation and CERN, the leading physics research lab in the world, where the Web was born.
As a provider of environmental data, PlanetWatch was naturally led to partner with Algorand which provides a highly scalable, decentralized and secure blockchain that is also one of the “greenest” for energy consumption. As far as CERN is concerned, PlanetWatch is the only company in the global blockchain ecosystem to be an official “CERN Spin-off”.
PlanetWatch’s network is growing very fast. It currently comprises approximately 700 sensors, mostly in Europe and the USA. Based on the current installation pipeline, the 1,000 sensor milestone will be reached in a few weeks. For more information on Planetwatch, visit https://planetwatch.io and for further information on Algorand, visit https://algorand.com.
