50,000 electric vehicle charging stations in Europe to offer crypto payments

Over the next three years, 50,000 EV charging stations across Europe will start accepting crypto payments.

Two payments firms have partnered to roll out crypto payments across 50,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Europe.

The partnership is between Irish e-commerce and mobile payment solutions firm HIPS Payment Group Ltd and Vourity, a Swedish firm that specializes in unattended payment facilities such as EV charging stations.

The integration of crypto payments with charging stations will occur over the next three years starting from November 2021.

The firms haven’t revealed which cryptocurrencies will be supported yet, but Vourity has dropped a pretty strong hint that Ethereum is likely to be among the first after it released an image of a payment terminal with an ETH logo on it. Ethereum is moving to the much more energy efficient Proof-of Stake consensus mechanism in the next year, which could mitigate any backlash among environmentally conscious EV drivers.

“We are currently evaluating what cryptos/coins we will support. It will be converted to fiat,” stated Hans Nottehed, the CEO of Vourity.

Vourity payment terminal, with an ETH logo

Crypto payments will be integrated with Vourity’s EV charging stations by connecting to the blockchain via Hips Merchant Protocol’s native protocol token Merchant Token.

Back in May, HIPS Payment Group launched the HIPS Merchant Protocol, the HIPS Merchant Protocol Gateway, and its governing Merchant Token.

The protocol was built on Ethereum and Solana in May 2021 and plans to expand support to Cardano in the future.

“With near real-time transaction speeds, in addition, the Hips Merchant Blockchain is designed for merchant transactions regardless if they are mobile, instore or e-commerce and utilizes the interchange concept from the payment card industry,” HIPS noted in May.

EV crypto innovation

Tesla famously did a U-turn on accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments for vehicles, with Elon Musk noting the firm won’t change course until the mining sector is at least 50% powered by clean energy. Other EV-focused firms have sought ways to innovate using “clean” crypto mining and adoption.

At the beginning of this month, Canadian light EV manufacturer Daymak announced an upcoming EV set for 2023, that is fitted with a crypto mining rig that can mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies while it's charging or parked.

In March, Stellantis, the parent company of European car manufacturer Fiat, partnered with Kiri Technologies, to promote an “eco-driving style,” by rewarding Fiat EV drivers in cryptocurrency via Kiri Technologies’ KiriCoin.

In that same month, Volkswagen Group Innovation, the research department of German car Volkswagen, announced a partnership with Energy Web, a non-profit organization focused on open source energy transition.

The duo teamed up to research methods of using EV’s and charging stations as part of the power grid using blockchain.

Jesse Morris, the chief commercial officer of Energy Web, spoke with Cointelegraph and emphasized the benefits of tracking the integration between EVs, charging stations, and power grids using blockchain.

Morris mentioned that during times of local grid congestion, Volkswagen drivers could be incentivized not to charge by being paid out in crypto or fiat. Additionally, utility providers could pay EV drivers to store energy during times of excess generation on the power grid.

<div>Which 'green' cryptocurrency is Tesla likely to add for payments?</div>

Bitcoin

Elon Musk revealed that Tesla will halt all BTC transactions due to environmental concerns, with the firm set to look at more energy-efficient cryptocurrencies.

On May 13, Elon Musk sent shockwaves across the crypto markets by revealing that Tesla will no longer accept any BTC payments for cars until Bitcoin mining becomes more environmentally sustainable.

Musk notes that while Tesla waits for Bitcoin to move to renewable energy, the firm will be looking at “other cryptocurrencies” that use less than 1% of Bitcoin’s energy per transaction.

Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021

The tweet sent much of the crypto community into a frenzy of speculation as to what other crypto assets Tesla may be exploring.

Social influencer “The Cryptic Poet,” told his 45,000 Twitter followers that he predicts Tesla will “either use ETH or XRP,” however user “Massimo” pointed out that if Tesla uses ETH in its current state — which uses Proof-of-Work just like Bitcoin does — it might as well be “staying with BTC.”

My prediction: Tesla will select either use ETH or XRP.
— The Cryptic Poet (@1CrypticPoet) May 12, 2021

According to an analysis by TRG data centers, Bitcoin is estimated to average around 700 kilowatt-hours, or KWh, per transaction. While it uses around as much power each year as the Netherlands, it's annual carbon footprint is closer to Singapore's according to Digiconomist, presumably due to the use of cheap renewable power for a considerable proportion of mining. (Note: estimates of power consumption per transaction are controversial, so they are simply used here as a very rough comparative tool).

Ethereum and PoS

Ethereum consumes an estimated 62.56 KWh, per transaction. The Ethereum network is currently secured using the same energy-inefficient consensus method as Bitcoin — Proof-of-Work, or PoW. Digiconomist estimates the Ethereum’s network’s annual carbon footprint is comparable to that of the country Sudan.

However, these issues are set to be resolved with the network’s forthcoming transition to ETH 2.0, which will introduce Proof-of-Stake, or PoS. According to Nimbus, PoS consensus is estimated to be 99% more energy-efficient than PoW.

Earlier this month Rocket Pool contributor Joe Clapis proved the point by running 10 Eth2 validators for 10 hours on his front lawn using a power bank and a hard drive connected to a Raspberry Pi.

But all Proof-of-Stake chains are arguably 99% more efficient than Bitcoin, so Tesla could pretty much choose any of them, from Solana to Cardano, and everything in between.

Ripple

Ripple (XRP) could be Tesla’s choice in the immediate term (depending on the SEC lawsuit), as all XRP tokens were pre-mined and XRP’s transactions incur a tiny amount of energy of just 0.0079 KWh according to TRG data centers. Ripple regularly puts out blog posts and releases touting how energy efficient it is in comparison to Proof-of-Work blockchains.

Stellar

Stellar Lumens (XLM) also follows the model of XRP as all of its tokens were minted at genesis. The network also uses the Stellar Consensus Protocol, or SCP, to rely on for authentication of transactions which reportedly requires less energy than the PoW and PoS stake models.

Algorand

Algorand could be a contender. Not only does it run on Pure Proof-of-Stake but the team announced its blockchain had become fully carbon-neutral on April 22. Algorand has also partnered with Spanish fin tech firm, ClimateTrade who are building a CO2 marketplace that enables companies to track their emissions in pursuit of broad sustainable goals. The firms will work together to implement a sustainability oracle to make the network carbon-negative.

Dogecoin

Elon Musk’s long-standing favorite Dogecoin could be the dark horse (dark dog?) in this race. The meme coin actually piggybacks much of its mining on the Litecoin network, which uses Proof-of-Work. But while Bitcoin mining employs the ultra-complex SHA-256 algorithm, Dogecoin and Litecoin are mined using Scrypt, which is energy efficient and quicker (though considerably less secure). Interestingly enough, while TRG Data centers puts LTC’s power usage at 18.522 KWh per transaction, Dogecoin is estimated to use just 0.12 KWh per transaction.

Musk may have been looking at such estimates when he put up a poll on Twitter this week, asking if Tesla should start accepting Dogecoin payments.

Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2021

sustainable crypto