MIAMI, Nov. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — PlanetWatch, the world’s first decentralized indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring network built on the Algorand blockchain, has selected the city of Miami to deploy a network of its sensors citywide. This deployment will mark the first deployment in a major US location and follows the successful integration of PlanetWatch’s technology in several European cities. The project will build upon commitments made as part of Miami’s ‘Miami Forever Climate Ready’ initiative.
The announcement comes on the back of global commitments to improve environmental policy following COP26, prior to which the World Health Organization updated its Global Air Quality guidelines. There is an increasing need for cities to take control of their air quality, particularly following recent evidence that more than 40% of Americans live in places with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.1
“PlanetWatchers” will host the air quality sensors to collect green data that will be transcribed onto the Algorand blockchain. Contributors will then receive PLANETS tokens as compensation. The information will be used to detect pollution hotspots and provide a database of environmental analytics to protect the health of Miami’s inhabitants.
Mayor Suarez, commented: “We are thrilled that PlanetWatch has selected Miami as the first US city in which they will deploy a network of air quality sensors. Miami is striving to become a green city through policies like the ‘Miami Forever Climate Ready’ initiative, and it is hugely exciting that innovators like PlanetWatch and Algorand are coming here to implement major sustainable technology in the US. Algorand is a carbon-negative blockchain, and the data from this project will play a crucial role in our climate adaptation efforts as well as our ambitions to make Miami an epicentre for digital capital markets.”
Claudio Parrinello, CEO of PlanetWatch, commented: “We are very excited to announce the deployment of PlanetWatch’s technology in Miami, which is our first large-scale project in the US. Miami is a thriving hub of innovation and we are thrilled to be partnering with the city as we progress in our vision of establishing a global network of low-impact, cost-effective environmental monitoring.
“PlanetWatch is built upon the contribution of individuals, and the people of Miami will play an invaluable role in expanding an air quality database that will help to protect the health of our people and our planet.”
About PlanetWatch s.a.s.
PlanetWatch s.a.s., is a high-tech startup based in France, less than a mile away from CERN. By leveraging synergically the Algorand blockchain, advanced data acquisition software developed at CERN and high-performance yet affordable air quality sensors, including advanced devices developed by a major research institute, PlanetWatch decentralizes, incentivizes and gamifies environmental monitoring. PlanetWatch is currently deploying dense, low-cost air quality monitoring networks delivering real-time data and building the first global immutable ledger for historical air quality data. For more information, visit https://www.planetwatch.io.
About Algorand
Algorand is building the technology to power the Future of Finance (FutureFi), the convergence of traditional and decentralized models into a unified system that is inclusive, frictionless, and secure. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for DeFi, financial institutions, and governments to smoothly transition into FutureFi. For more information, visit www.algorand.com.
1 Research from the American Lung Foundation – https://www.lung.org/research/sota/key-findings
SOURCE PlanetWatch