The Municipality of Muri bei Bern, in the Canton of Bern, together with The Hashgraph Group, a Swiss-based Web3 and AI technology engineering company operating within the Hedera ecosystem and specializing in enterprise solutions, and Swisscoast, a Swiss tech company that builds blockchain applications on Hedera, and Apps with Love, Swiss Digital transformation firm, today announced the launch of Switzerland’s first live municipal blockchain initiative: the digital municipal biodiversity voucher built on the Hedera DLT network, known as BIDI (BIODIVERSITÄTS-GUTSCHEINE).
Switzerland’s Biodiversitäts-Initiative, put to voters in a 2024 referendum, required every Swiss municipality to deliver biodiversity outcomes—without providing the verification or settlement infrastructure to do so. BIDI is the first instrument designed to address that gap.
BIDI is a Swiss franc–pegged, on-chain voucher that rewards community volunteers for biodiversity and nature conservation work, including meadow restoration, hedge laying, dry-stone wall maintenance, invasive neophyte removal, riparian and wetland restoration, and more.
Residents can redeem each on-chain BIDI digital voucher at a value of 1 Swiss franc across local businesses, merchants, and service providers participating in the program. The vouchers are issued during nature conservation projects as a token of appreciation for those involved.
Previously, the Municipality of Muri bei Bern supported by BIDI, issued paper vouchers for eight years. The new on-chain digital vouchers are an environmentally friendly, innovative, and energy-efficient way to close the loop between ecological action and the local economy.
Digitizing a trusted redemption voucher not only preserves an established social trust mechanism but also adds verifiable measurement. While Muri bei Bern is the first deployment, the voucher template, workflows, and technical onboarding are designed so that additional municipalities can launch in a matter of weeks—not eighteen months. This positions Hedera as a potential foundation for Switzerland’s municipal infrastructure following the Biodiversitäts-Initiative.
BIDI was built using Swisscoast’s private, digital Swiss franc stablecoin, HCHF, developed on the Hedera network, with The Hashgraph Group as ecosystem partner.
Toni Caradonna, President of Swisscoast AG, said: “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. 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.”
Stefan Deiss, CEO and Co-Founder of The Hashgraph Group, added: “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.”
Hedera reports a carbon-negative footprint, not only because the network is energy efficient, but also because it purchases carbon offsets that exceed its energy usage. In addition, the Hedera Governing Council includes organizations committed to sustainability and publishes regular sustainability reporting, supported by third-party verification.
The project was backed by The Hashgraph Association as part of its Enterprise Accelerator Program aimed at enabling startups, enterprises, and government institutions to develop enterprise-grade applications on Hedera.
Swisscoast also worked with Apps with Love, a Swiss digital transformation firm that develops digital products, to deliver the blockchain-enabled voucher.
Stephan Klaus, CEO, Apps with Love, said: “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. This project shows how digital products can directly empower citizens and connect ecological action with local economic benefit.”