Close Menu
TechBrunchTechBrunch
  • Home
  • AI
  • Apps
  • Crypto
  • Security
  • Startups
  • TechCrunch
  • Venture

Subscribe to Updates

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss our latest news

Subscribe my Newsletter for New Posts & tips Let's stay updated!

What's Hot

xNotify Polymarket as partner in the official forecast market

June 6, 2025

iOS 19: All the rumor changes that Apple could bring to the new operating system

June 6, 2025

WWDC 2025: What to expect from this year's meeting

June 6, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
TechBrunchTechBrunch
  • Home
  • AI

    OpenAI seeks to extend human lifespans with the help of longevity startups

    January 17, 2025

    Farewell to the $200 million woolly mammoth and TikTok

    January 17, 2025

    Nord Security founder launches Nexos.ai to help enterprises move AI projects from pilot to production

    January 17, 2025

    Data proves it remains difficult for startups to raise capital, even though VCs invested $75 billion in the fourth quarter

    January 16, 2025

    Apple suspends AI notification summaries for news after generating false alerts

    January 16, 2025
  • Apps

    iOS 19: All the rumor changes that Apple could bring to the new operating system

    June 6, 2025

    WWDC 2025: What to expect from this year's meeting

    June 6, 2025

    The court denied requests to suspend awards regarding Apple's App Store payment fees

    June 6, 2025

    Perplexity received 780 million questions last month, the CEO says

    June 5, 2025

    Bonfire's new software allows users to build their own social communities free from platform control

    June 5, 2025
  • Crypto

    xNotify Polymarket as partner in the official forecast market

    June 6, 2025

    Circle IPOs are giving hope to more startups waiting to be published to more startups

    June 5, 2025

    GameStop bought $500 million in Bitcoin

    May 28, 2025

    Vote for the session you want to watch in 2025

    May 26, 2025

    Save $900 + 90% from 2 tickets to destroy 2025 in the last 24 hours

    May 25, 2025
  • Security

    Humanity unveils custom AI models for US national security customers

    June 5, 2025

    Unlock phone company Cellebrite to acquire mobile testing startup Corellium for $170 million

    June 5, 2025

    Ransomware Gangs claim responsibility for Kettering Health Hack

    June 4, 2025

    Former CTO of CrowdStrike's cyber-rivals and how automation can undermine security for early-stage startups

    June 4, 2025

    Data breaches at newspaper giant Lee Enterprises impact 40,000 people

    June 4, 2025
  • Startups

    7 days left: Founders and VCs save over $300 on all stage passes

    March 24, 2025

    AI chip startup Furiosaai reportedly rejecting $800 million acquisition offer from Meta

    March 24, 2025

    20 Hottest Open Source Startups of 2024

    March 22, 2025

    Andrill may build a weapons factory in the UK

    March 21, 2025

    Startup Weekly: Wiz bets paid off at M&A Rich Week

    March 21, 2025
  • TechCrunch

    OpenSea takes a long-term view with a focus on UX despite NFT sales remaining low

    February 8, 2024

    AI will save software companies' growth dreams

    February 8, 2024

    B2B and B2C are not about who buys, but how you sell

    February 5, 2024

    It's time for venture capital to break away from fast fashion

    February 3, 2024

    a16z's Chris Dixon believes it's time to focus on blockchain use cases rather than speculation

    February 2, 2024
  • Venture

    Startup Battlefield 200: Only 3 days left

    June 6, 2025

    Book all TC Stage Exhibitor Tables before ending today

    June 6, 2025

    Less than 48 hours left until display at TC at all stages

    June 5, 2025

    TC Session: AI will be on sale today at Berkeley

    June 5, 2025

    North America accounts for the majority of AI VC investment despite the harsh political environment

    June 5, 2025
TechBrunchTechBrunch

Can blockchain make weather forecasting better? WeatherXM thinks so

TechBrunchBy TechBrunchMay 25, 20244 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Telegram LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Telegram Email


Accurate weather forecasts are vital to industries like agriculture, and for preventing and mitigating damage from severe weather and natural disasters. But producing accurate forecasts is incredibly difficult, which is why WeatherXM's founders have spent the last 12 years working to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts.

In 2012, Manolis Nikiforakis, Stratos Theodorou and Nikos Tsiligaridis launched an app that allowed community members to provide grassroots-level weather forecasts. They then worked as consultants for corporate clients in weather-dependent industries, such as Athens Airport. Now they are building WeatherXM, a network of community-monitored weather stations that collect and share local weather data through a system built on the blockchain.

WeatherXM CEO Nikiforakis told TechCrunch that the startup already has 5,000 of its own weather stations in more than 80 countries. These stations collect local, ground-based weather information and are monitored by volunteers who are compensated with WeatherXM's own crypto token, $WXM. All collected data is free for anyone to use for personal use, and is available for a fee to companies who want to use it commercially.

“We're big supporters of open source,” Nikiforakis said. “We [WeatherXM’s mission] “It's nothing without collaboration across a range of people and expertise. We're making all this data publicly available for anyone to use. You can see in real time what each weather station is reporting.”

The startup just raised $7.7 million in a Series A round led by Lightspeed's blockchain-focused early-stage fund Faction, with participation from Borderless Capital, Alumni Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, and other venture capital and other types of investors. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its team and position itself to generate revenue from commercial users.

Tim Cooley, a partner at Faction, said he was attracted to investing in the company because it offered a compelling use case as a community-driven blockchain project, with both a supply of people wanting to join the community and a demand for what the company produces. The potential TAM for more accurate weather data didn't hurt, either.

“The collapse of a lot of deep networks is a demand-side problem,” Khoury says, “where the network cannot be sustained over the long term if there is no demand for what is actually being generated or produced.”

As someone who has had my basement flooded many times due to storms that I couldn’t accurately predict, this trade immediately intrigued me, but the blockchain and crypto token aspects of WeatherXM’s strategy initially left me puzzled.

Nikiforakis said the cryptocurrency incentive structure is the only way the local weather network can work. Paying each person who oversees a weather station would make the idea too costly and complicated to scale to the scale the network needs to be effective. He said WeatherXM's structure is meant to incentivize users a bit more, because the company found through its first app that people were willing to provide their weather data for free.

“[Using crypto] It also helps with adjustments [weather stations] “It will be deployed in the areas we care about the most – developing and rural countries,” Nikiforakis said. “The cryptocurrency rewards will act as a coordination tool, and because in many ways this is a community project, the cryptocurrency will act as a governance tool. People can use the token to vote on decisions that affect how the project works.”

I'll admit I'm not bullish on blockchain or cryptocurrencies, but using that structure here makes a lot of sense, and it fits with the startup's focus on open-sourcing the data needed for blockchain technology to really take effect.

Earlier this week I moderated a panel focused on how communities can prepare for climate emergencies and disasters, and a theme that came up again and again was that this data needs to be open source so that public and private organizations can more easily work together to prepare for and better respond to climate disasters.

WeatherXM open sourcing all of its data from its stations, especially in underserved and rural areas, could be an advantage for communities battling the growing threat and damage of weather events without the need for large budgets or resources.

The mission here is easy to support, but it remains to be seen whether putting weather information on the blockchain will generate enough demand to make a real difference.

“For the industry to move forward and for meteorology in general to improve, we need to build an ecosystem around our technology and ideas,” Nikiforakis said. “We don't like the old way of doing things, where things are siloed and only accessible to those who qualify or pay. We're going against the flow. We're opening up our data to everyone.”



Source link

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

xNotify Polymarket as partner in the official forecast market

June 6, 2025

Circle IPOs are giving hope to more startups waiting to be published to more startups

June 5, 2025

GameStop bought $500 million in Bitcoin

May 28, 2025

Vote for the session you want to watch in 2025

May 26, 2025

Save $900 + 90% from 2 tickets to destroy 2025 in the last 24 hours

May 25, 2025

Only 3 days left to save up to $900 to destroy the 2025 pass

May 23, 2025

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Reviews
Editors Picks

7 days left: Founders and VCs save over $300 on all stage passes

March 24, 2025

AI chip startup Furiosaai reportedly rejecting $800 million acquisition offer from Meta

March 24, 2025

20 Hottest Open Source Startups of 2024

March 22, 2025

Andrill may build a weapons factory in the UK

March 21, 2025
About Us
About Us

Welcome to Tech Brunch, your go-to destination for cutting-edge insights, news, and analysis in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cryptocurrency, Technology, and Startups. At Tech Brunch, we are passionate about exploring the latest trends, innovations, and developments shaping the future of these dynamic industries.

Our Picks

xNotify Polymarket as partner in the official forecast market

June 6, 2025

iOS 19: All the rumor changes that Apple could bring to the new operating system

June 6, 2025

WWDC 2025: What to expect from this year's meeting

June 6, 2025

Subscribe to Updates

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss our latest news

Subscribe my Newsletter for New Posts & tips Let's stay updated!

© 2025 TechBrunch. Designed by TechBrunch.
  • Home
  • About Tech Brunch
  • Advertise with Tech Brunch
  • Contact us
  • DMCA Notice
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.