[ad_1]
CleanTechnica
Published on November 17, 2018 |
by Michael Barnard
November 17, 2018 of Michael Barnard
Along with our normal daily coverage for clean technology news, CleanTechnica it also produces in-depth reports on various aspects of clean energy and clean transport. One of the emerging technologies we cover is not directly a clean technological innovation is blockchain, which promises to be a catalyst for innovation in the green economy in the near future. Blockchain is probably best known to the public as "having something to do with cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, right?", Which is partially correct, but the technology itself has a wide range of applications, some of which will be crucial in the fields of distributed renewable energy , network management and energy storage, and smart contracts, among others.
The full report Blockchain: an enabling innovator for clean technology, which was published in July, is a deep immersion in the blockchain and its potential, and we will publish further extracts from the report in the coming weeks. (Read the last episode here.)
Energy Web Foundation (EWF) has great bones. It was founded by two important organizations in the clean energy sector: the influential Rocky Mountain Institute founded by Amory Lovins in 1982 and the most recent Grid Singularity, an organization focused on blockchain and on the network with developers of Ethereum's blockchain, leading energy experts, energy regulators and technology entrepreneurs.
They founded the Energy Web Foundation, a global non-profit organization focused on the acceleration of blockchain technology across the energy sector.
Lovins, of course, is famous for his initial focus on soft energy paths, a distributed model of electricity generation and consumption with consumption as close to generation as possible and with fewer major long-distance transmission lines from centralized energy sources. This way of thinking aligns well with the micro-grid focus and disintermediation of many blockchain energy startups.
Peter Bronski answered on behalf of EWF seven questions commonly addressed to us about blockchain cleantech initiatives. The following has been slightly changed.
What is the status of EWF today?
EWF is an independent and independent nonprofit organization, co-founded by Rocky Mountain Institute and Grid Singularity, based in Switzerland and with a significant team presence in Germany and the United States (but a global reach). Since its foundation in 2017, EWF has grown rapidly from 10 affiliates to ~ 50, securing up to now more than $ 21 million in funding. Above all, EWF has made significant progress on its core technology, including announcing a series of improvements in the beta version of its blocknet blocknet and the v1 version of its EW Origin application for the renewable energy and carbon markets.
What is the governance model you have put in place to ensure that your offer is not abused or abused?
We believe that our governance model, both within and outside the chain, is one of the main elements of differentiation of the Energy Web chain compared to other blockchains and that the development of the right governance model is fundamental for the acceptance and 39; adoption in heavily regulated electricity sector. The EW chain remains open source and free to use; anyone can download the client and start using the network, creating apps on the chain, etc.
However, the EW chain uses a new version of the consent mechanism called Proof of Authority, where the validator nodes are reliable, authorized and known energy companies. On other public networks, these validator nodes are anonymous miners. This type of transparent supervision is important for the management of critical energy infrastructure.
This is also just the beginning of our governance model: we are working hard on the technical white paper and on governance now and intend to publish it this summer. We will also review our governance structure over the next 12 months to identify weaknesses, vulnerabilities and feedback loops, all in anticipation of a block of genesis in our chain in the second quarter of next year.
What is the incentive model you have put in place to balance the value through the blockchain set of participants?
Based on the governance model described above, there are several incentives on our chain:
- Validation nodes can be incentivized with a simple block validation award. On our chain, there is no mining: it is a validator node
called by a round robin to perform its function as a node authorized to automatically update on the network. One way to encourage the participation of these well-known authorized validation nodes is to encourage them with a simple symbolic reward. - On the other hand, the protocol changes to our network are actually in the hands of the developers. Most governance models to date are experimenting with the ability to give token holders the ability to vote for protocol changes. In our model, we give developers the opportunity to vote for protocol changes. Here, developers who are interested in voting to upgrade the network must go through a simple KYC process proving to be a blockchain / energy developer. Therefore, I am able to vote for changes to the network based on the total use of their dApps and smart contracts.
We believe that the combination of these two on-chain processes – self-validation through incentive validation nodes and chain voting by known developers using the network – is a good starting point for the chain type that we are assembling.
How are you protecting from significant reductions in the value of cryptocurrency as seen in Q1 2018?
The fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrencies can certainly influence how fast cryptographic investments spill over into the energy blockchain, including the EWF. However, EWF affiliates invest mainly in fiat currency.
More importantly, our main goal is to exploit the many desirable attributes of blockchain for the energy sector, rather than cryptocurrency. We are deliberately not intoning the energy itself. On the contrary, we are interested in how blockchain could support or radically transform a myriad of electricity grid use cases, from renewable energy certificates to peer-to-peer and other forms of transactional energy. Tokens have a role in the EW network, but their function is mainly to ensure resistance to the bad actors, not necessarily to trade on exchanges as with Bitcoin and Ether.
Is the test of the game a consensus approach to the final state or an intermediate step like the proof of the work, and if so, what are the consensus approaches that you expect to dominate?
For the EW chain, we are using a particular form of Proof of Authority by consensus. It offers the kind of transparent supervision that we believe needs the energy sector, especially for regulators who want to know who "authenticates" the transaction blocks. But in addition, our form of Authority Test – combined with other tactics such as parachute chains – also allows the scalability and speed that a specific energy sector blockchain must have to handle the transaction throughput of millions of smart , connected devices such as solar systems on the roof, EV charger, smart thermostats, etc. Other forms of consent are simply too slow to reach the scale necessary to manage network operations. The pole test is great, however. In fact, we are considering requiring both developers and EW chain validators to aim for a certain amount of tokens as another check and balancing behavior.
Which key metrics or key performance indicators that are considered critical to your offer and business model?
Above all, we want to see the adoption of the Energy Web chain as the standard blockchain basis – the digital DNA – of the numerous applications being developed by service companies, energy companies, start-ups and others. We already have over 30 companies that build and test apps on our Tobalaba testnet. When the EW chain goes live with the genesis block in the second quarter of 2019, we hope to see the continued adoption of the EW chain as the main basic choice on which others build their energy applications. We also want to see significant throughput – now measured in terms of transactions per second – flowing through our chain to push the scalability limits.
As a mover in advance, what advice would you give people to consider the idea of entering the blockchain cleantech space in the next year?
Having just participated in Event Horizon 2018 – a global summit that brought together the worldwide community of energy blockchains – it is clear that this is an exciting and rapidly growing space with enormous potential, but also a bit in its infancy . With the EW chain, the cleantech industry has the opportunity to merge on early standardization and shared investments that accelerates the learning curve and the development of core technology. This allows all market participants to get to market-ready applications faster and faster and reduce initial hype potential and skepticism into real and viable solutions that deliver the promises of blockchain. For those thinking of entering the blockchain cleantech space in the next year, the time to move is now. Space is already rapidly moving, so those who wish to coordinate the movement must get on board early.
Stay tuned for more excerpts from Blockchain: an enabling innovator for clean technologyor view the summary and request a complete report at https://products.cleantechnica.com/reports/
About the author
Michael Barnard is a C-level technology and strategy consultant who works with start-ups, existing companies and investors to identify opportunities for significant growth in turnover in the low-carbon economy. He is editor of The Future is Electric, a publication of Medium. He regularly publishes low-carbon technologies and policies at sites like Newsweek, Slate, Forbes, Huffington Post, Quartz, CleanTechnica and RenewEconomy, with some of his work included in textbooks. Third-party articles about his analysis and interviews have been published in dozens of global news sites and have reached # 1 on Reddit Science. Much of his work was born on Quora.com, where Mike has been a Top Writer every year since 2012. He is available for advice, linguistic commitments and Council positions.
[ad_2]Source link
