Bitcoin & It’s proof of work mining are in the crosshairs of regulators. They see BTC
as an energy guzzler….saying securing Bitcoin and proof of work blockchains
takes more energy than many individual countries. Could the US government be
planning a proof of work ban?? Or is there an Altcoin which could save Bitcoin from
a possible ban!? Well find out in about ten minutes…because it’s time for Chico Crypto…
If you didn’t hear the news….the current US whitehouse released a very important
document and research piece 2 weeks ago. It is titled “Climate & Energy Implications
of Crypto-Assets in the United States” and they went hard against proof of work mining…
And on Page 7, there is a very important detail. The White house said “Should these
measures prove ineffective at reducing impacts, the Administration should
explore executive actions, and Congress might consider legislation, to limit or
eliminate the use of high energy intensity consensus mechanisms for crypto-asset mining.
AKA, the white house will BAN proof of work mining,
unless Bitcoin can provably reduce its energy impact…
So what do the regulators want!? What does BTC need to do to stay alive within the United States?
Well, they explain this on the same page. They say they want “standards for very low
energy intensities, low waterusage, low noise generation, clean energy usage by operators,
and standards that strengthen over time for additional carbon-free generation
to match or exceed the additional electricity load of these facilities.”
On the next page they also want transparency of miners and the electricity usage. They say:
“Cryptoasset industry associations, including mining firms and equipment manufacturers, should
be encouraged to publicly report crypto-asset mining locations, annual electricity usage,
GHG emissions using existing protocols, and electronic waste recycling performance.”
They want Bitcoin miners to prove they are using renewable energy and they want that information
tracked and verified. I wonder if there is a solution being built which does all of this??
Well yes there is…and it’s called Energy Web. Let’s just listen to CEO
Jesse Morriss’s talk with CNBC about their Bitcoin solution just a couple weeks ago….
Sounds like the Solution the white house is looking for right!!??
Well if we go back to the White House crypto climate document…we can see Energy
Web technology was even mentioned…in the section Blockchain as Enabling Technology
for Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) we can see they say “Emerging uses of blockchain
technologies for energy management include enabling California’s Flex Alert system.
This system enables the electricity grid operator to push out requests for
energy conservation during a grid emergency, securely interact with customers, and understand
participation rates while maintaining customer anonymity.”
This California Flex Alert system was built by Energy Web…going to it,
we can see at the bottom…it’s powered by Energy Web..and if we go back to the whitehouse document,
they have reference about the FLEX Alert system…197 and 198…if we click into reference
197 we can see it’s an article highlighting the system and Energy Web and in the article,
Mark Rothleder, chief operating officer for California ISO said “This year,
our work with Energy Web has made the programme smarter, more effective and more measurable.”
Energy Web is sliding its way into the political elite…with 2 major goals.
Save Bitcoin and cryptocurrency from the regulators…and decentralize energy markets.
So how are they getting into the political elite circle?…Well I’ve covered this
before…Energy Web has a team member inside of the whitehouse…going to Claire Henly’s
Linked’n…we can see she is currently a white house fellow, part of the special
envoy on Climate…but previously she worked for Energy Weg, beginning as the head of
regulatory and corporate engagement, and then becoming the managing director of Energy Web…
Claire is now in the whitehouse….and I’m sure the technology she helped build at
Energy Web will be a focal point of what she is bringing to the political table….
But there are more energy web peeps bringing down the political house.
There was this article put out last month titled “Meet the energy and climate bigwigs
with White House access” and in the article they talk about Ali Zaidi, who just last
week became the White House National Climate Advisor….leading the whitehouse on Climate…
In the article it says “Also in April, Zaidi met with clean energy advocates from the
nonprofit RMI, including John Coequyt, Jules Kortenhorst and Sarah Ladislaw.
As we know, RMI is the other half of the Energy Web Foundation…EWF is
a partnership between Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) & Grid Singularity…
But we can see specifically, an EWT council member,
Jules Kortenhorst met with Ali Zaidi…the article says so….
So in April…Energy Web met with a bigwig of the whitehouse….but let’s just go back
to the white house climate and crypto document. The main Federal Regulator
mentioned is the Department of Energy, DOE…they are the main body that is going
to be overseeing what happens with crypto and the USA's climate goals.
Now…have you ever heard of the National Renewable Energy Lab, NREL?? Well going to NREL’s website
and the about section we can see they say “From breakthroughs in fundamental science to new clean
technologies to integrated energy systems that power our lives, NREL researchers are transforming
the way the nation and the world use energy.” and at the bottom “NREL is a national laboratory of
the U.S. Department of Energy.”...yup NREL is the department of Energy…DOE…
In May of this year, NREL put out this report “Zero Export Feeder Through
Transactive Markets” and as we can see it’s a “Strategic Partnership Project Report” and in
the list of acronyms we can already get a sense of who one of these partners is. EWF
and EWC in the report stand for Energy Web Foundation and Energy Web Chain.
In the introduction…this is said about the project. “In this project, we aim to show
that these challenges may be mitigated through the application of transactive energy markets.
We implement a transactive energy market designed to ensure zero energy export at the feeder head.
We have implemented the market using blockchain technology as it has features that enable secure
tracking of market participants’ identities and secure logging of market transactions. To
design and implement such a market, we needed utility operations experts.This led to a close
collaborative partnership between Exelon utilities, the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL), and the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), as shown in Figure 1.
Which as we can see Energy Web’s is highly involved and
the major one…they are providing the distribution energy market software!!
But wait there's more!! Going to page 16 and the section blockchain…they talk about the
EW-DOS components of the system and say: “The co-simulation application integrates the Energy
Web Decentralized Operating System (EWDOS) stack developed by EWF. EWF’s digital ledger,
the Energy Web Chain (EWC), is one of the core components of EW-DOS and has been leveraged for
record keeping in this project. Which one of those records is DIDs for the market, each homeowner,
HEMS or home Energy management systems, and all DERs distributed energy resources.
Finally in the conclusion…we get the word of all words from the government. They say “In
addition to the market design, we have been able to explore real-world implementation
pathways using the Energy Web Foundations’ blockchain platform and tools. These tools can be
leveraged as transactive markets make a transition from simulation to pilot deployments,
making those pilot implementations cost effective, reliable, and scalable.
Pilot deployments of transactive energy markets are coming soon,
sponsored by the government…and they will be using Energy Web’s
tech stack and blockchain!! Cheers viewers I’ll see you next time!!