West African-based weather balloon company Kanda is making its climate data available through the blockchain in partnership with blockchain company Telos. Dubbed the Telokanda Weather Group, this new initiative will allow university students as well as farming communities to quickly and easily share climate research data through a secure public domain. To incentivize citizens to participate, the project developed a method of sending digital currency to individuals who will launch weather balloons.
These high-altitude weather balloons will carry radiosondes that transmit the data to receivers on the ground. Data such as temperature, wind speed and pressure can then be accessed publicly through the telos blockchain. According to the two companies, once a weather balloon transmits data to the blockchain, a smart contract will immediately deliver payments in Telos tokens (TLOS) to the user’s digital wallet. A base reward of $15 can then be exchanged to local fiat currencies—such as Nigerian naira or Ghanaian cedis—through the Sesacash application.
These rewards will be initially funded by the Telos Worker Proposal System. However, Telokanda is aiming for future funding to come from NGOs that are interested in using the data for weather forecasting and research.
According to the two companies, the goal is to further encourage and improve climate research, hurricane tracking, and local weather forecasting in the region. They have already partnered with the University of Uyo, River State University in Nigeria, and Academic City, which have completed eight successful launches so far.
The project was originally conceptualized by a local team that includes former NASA engineer Nicholas Lopez. Telos’ chief architect Douglas Horn shares that the company sees a lot of potential for Telokanda to “quickly grow into one that will save lives and help prevent billions of dollars in weather damage while rewarding local participants for their efforts.”
Blockchain technology has become more and more prominent on the African continent, with those like the telos blockchain being used for real-world applications. Telos itself has been working on increasing the real-world presence of its blockchain. Prior to the launch of Telokanda, the company had also launched TelosTask. This application is based on the Telos blockchain and allows workers to find temporary employment using blockchain technology.
Horn has expressed that this perfectly depicts the capabilities of high-capacity blockchains to create solutions following the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of now, Telokanda is planning to have each partner university launch one balloon per week. It hopes to increase this to daily launches by 2021.
For more information about Telokanda, visit https://kandaweather.org/.
For more news and stories, check out how tiny satellites could improve climate and weather tracking here.