A municipality in Switzerland is turning to blockchain technology to modernise environmental incentives and local economic participation, in what stakeholders describe as a significant step toward integrating distributed ledger technology (DLT) into public-sector administration and biodiversity financing.
The Municipality of Muri bei Bern, located in the Canton of Bern, has officially launched Switzerland’s first live municipal blockchain initiative, a digital biodiversity voucher known as BIDI (BIODIVERSITÄTS-GUTSCHEINE), developed on the Hedera distributed ledger network.
The initiative was launched in partnership with The Hashgraph Group, a Swiss-based Web3 and artificial intelligence technology engineering company operating within the Hedera ecosystem; Swisscoast, a blockchain technology company specialising in Hedera-based applications; and Apps with Love, a Swiss digital transformation firm.
The project represents a convergence of environmental policy, digital finance, municipal governance, and blockchain infrastructure at a time when European governments are increasingly exploring technology-driven approaches to sustainability accountability and public-sector transparency.
The launch follows Switzerland’s 2024 Biodiversitäts-Initiative referendum, which mandated municipalities to deliver measurable biodiversity outcomes without providing a unified framework for tracking, verification, or financial settlement mechanisms.
Under the programme, residents participating in biodiversity and conservation projects receive blockchain-based digital vouchers pegged to the Swiss franc. Each voucher carries a redemption value of one Swiss franc and can be used across participating local businesses, merchants, and service providers within the municipality.
The vouchers are awarded as recognition for volunteer activities supporting environmental restoration and biodiversity protection, including meadow restoration, hedge laying, riparian and wetland rehabilitation, dry-stone wall maintenance, and invasive species removal.
Municipal authorities say the digital system modernises a long-standing local trust-based reward structure previously managed through paper vouchers over the last eight years.
By moving the programme on-chain, the municipality aims to introduce greater transparency, traceability, operational efficiency, and measurable impact verification while reducing administrative complexity.
Stakeholders involved in the project say the significance of BIDI extends beyond environmental incentives, positioning blockchain technology as a potential foundational infrastructure layer for future municipal services.
According to project partners, the voucher architecture and technical deployment model were intentionally designed for scalability, enabling other municipalities to replicate the framework within weeks rather than undertaking lengthy custom infrastructure development cycles.
This could potentially position Hedera’s distributed ledger infrastructure as a future backbone for selected public-sector digital systems within Switzerland’s local governance ecosystem.
BIDI was built using Swisscoast’s private digital Swiss franc stablecoin, HCHF, developed on the Hedera network, with The Hashgraph Group serving as ecosystem partner.
Toni Caradonna, president of Swisscoast AG, described the initiative as an example of how blockchain technology can support both innovation and environmental stewardship.
“We are proud to offer BIDI – an existing, trusted Swiss instrument—in collaboration with The Hashgraph Association. This is not our first collaboration; previously, we worked on HLiquity, where Hedera offered not only optimal performance but also strong environmental credentials,” Caradonna said.
“For us, technologies such as DLT are the cornerstone not only of innovation, but also of conservation. We hope to expand the BIDI voucher to more municipalities, cities, and countries across Europe,” he added.
The launch also reflects growing efforts within the blockchain industry to reposition distributed ledger technology away from speculative digital asset applications toward enterprise-grade public infrastructure and institutional utility.
Stefan Deiss, CEO and Co-Founder of The Hashgraph Group, said the project demonstrates how tokenisation is increasingly moving beyond traditional finance into public administration and civic systems.
“We are proud to support Swisscoast as we see tokenization of assets moving from the financial sector into public services. Public-sector instruments such as vouchers, claims, and reporting tokens will become verifiable, and BIDI demonstrates DLT credibility through provenance – not novelty,” Deiss stated.
The environmental positioning of the project is also central to its strategic narrative.
Hedera reports a carbon-negative operational footprint, supported not only by energy-efficient network architecture but also through carbon offset purchases exceeding the network’s energy consumption. The Hedera Governing Council additionally includes organisations focused on sustainability and environmental reporting standards.
The initiative received backing from The Hashgraph Association through its Enterprise Accelerator Program, designed to support startups, enterprises, and government institutions building enterprise-grade applications on the Hedera network.
Apps with Love, which collaborated on the digital deployment, said the project illustrates how emerging technologies can enhance trusted community systems while delivering measurable public value.
“As a firm dedicated to digital transformation, we are excited to see how DLT can take a trusted, established community instrument like the biodiversity voucher and make it more efficient, verifiable, and environmentally sound,” said Stephan Klaus, CEO of Apps with Love.
“This project shows how digital products can directly empower citizens and connect ecological action with local economic benefit,” he added.
