DappRadar and LayerZero launch chain-agnostic staking token

July 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

A new staking mechanism through RADAR token has been created that is set to minimize gas fees and support recurring APR across multiple blockchains.

DappRadar and omnichain interoperability protocol LayerZero have launched a new token to enable cross-chain staking across multiple blockchains and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible networks — a move designed to minimize fees and increase access to staking opportunities.

The functionality for the newly launched RADAR token is provided through a set of smart contracts, DappRadar said. One of the contracts is known as the controller and the other as a proxy. The two smart contracts work together to enable the new staking mechanism.

Requests made to withdraw or claim rewards are sent to the proxy smart contract. It communicates with the controller contract to determine if the request is valid. If the request is valid, the controller informs the proxy to release the tokens. DappRadar claims this type of cross-chain staking was previously unavailable anywhere.

DappRadar also provided documentation instructing users on how to take advantage of this new functionality. The instructions mention that users can “can stake [their] RADAR tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and then claim the rewards on BNB Chain.” These two chains are the first supported, with a rollout for Polygon (MATIC) expected soon.

DappRadar describes itself as a decentralized application exploration platform. The RADAR overview mentions that the token will help the company broaden its coverage, pursue faster listings for emerging projects, provide more accurate listings of current projects and offer better portfolio tools.

DappRadar and LayerZero first announced their RADAR token in December 2021. Seven months later, the crypto market landscape has changed dramatically, with June capping off the worst quarter in 11 years. Despite the current bear market, other tokens have seen new highs up to 300%.

Integrating blockchain-based digital IDs into daily life

June 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Banks

Blockchain tech is pushing the boundaries of ID management as governments look for scalable solutions that promote privacy, control and decentralized data management.

The last 13 years have seen blockchain technology evolve into numerous use cases — finance, data, logistics and security, among others. However, the idea of using blockchain’s immutable capabilities to ID humans got new life when Changpeng “CZ” Zhao visited the island country of Palau to kick off its digital residency program.

The blockchain identity management market is estimated to grow by $3.58 billion in the span of five years from 2021 to 2025. Key factors include the rising demand for digitalization and privacy-respecting identity solutions. As a result, a myriad of solutions breached the market serving this need in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFT), distributed ledger technology (DLT) and barebone blockchain technology.

Considering the plethora of use cases that blockchain can serve on a day-to-day basis, numerous government organizations began experimenting with the technology — weighing heavily on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and verifiable and immutable user identity.

Problems with traditional IDs

Correctly identifying — or ID-ing — an individual has always been paramount to governments to ensure targeted delivery of services and allowances, among other requirements, which holds true to this day. However, ongoing advancements in technology empowered the general public with tools to create IDs visually identical to the original. Given blockchain’s capability to store immutable records, authorities see the technology as a fighting chance against fraud related to ID theft and fakes.

With traditional paper-based IDs comes the difficulty of confirming their legitimacy across different systems. History has shown how people successfully use fake ID cards to claim unauthorized access to a myriad of benefits. However, technological advancements such as blockchain have provided authorities with the opportunity to issue verifiable certificates and IDs while ensuring scalability, speed and security of the identity management system.

Efforts on this front saw the rise of a new ecosystem comprising various blockchain-based digital ID offerings. For example, Shubham Gupta, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, recently spearheaded the launch of a Polygon-based system for issuing verifiable caste certificates on behalf of the government of Maharashtra.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, he said, “if identity management systems have to be rated on a scale of 0 to 1 based on decentralization and individual control, traditional centralized ID systems will be on the far left and fully self-hosted, public blockchain-based IDs on the extreme right.”

Forms of blockchain-based digital IDs

While blockchain technology can and has been used as-is for maintaining immutable records over the internet, innovations spanning over the last decade resulted in the birth of sub ecosystems around the use of blockchain technology.

“The idea of blockchain-based digital IDs has been floating around for quite a while but came into the limelight with the recent NFT boom,” blockchain adviser and Bundlesbets.com CEO Brenda Gentry told Cointelegraph.

*An Italian electronic identity document.*

While NFTs were first marketed as a tool to represent real-world objects including intellectual and physical assets, the technology found itself well-suited for a variety of applications. Recently, government organizations have begun testing NFTs for ID-ing citizens as means to reduce operational costs.

“Wide-scale implementation of blockchain-based digital IDs — like issuance of national identity cards such as passports and driving licenses — takes time but I strongly believe that is the destination that the world should move toward,” Gentry added. In addition to helping authenticate people, blockchain technology discourages counterfeiting, tampering or identity theft attempts.

Citing the involvement of luxury brands and artists that promoted the use of NFTs to authenticate the legitimacy and ownership of a product or art, Gentry opined that “luxury items can be checked for their authenticity on-chain which completely eliminates the chance of owning a counterfeit product.”

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Neil Martis, the co-founder and project lead of LegitDoc, which is known in the space for delivering numerous blockchain-based certificates and ID solutions to the state governments of India, envisions a greater adoption of public blockchain-based ledgers over the next decade. Web3-native decentralized IDs will play an incremental role in identifying users and authenticating them to participate in different types of Web3 native transactions.

Benefits of blockchain-based digital IDs

While blockchain’s elevator pitch is heavily inclined toward immutability, the technology boasts multiple advantages over traditional software and paper-based systems. The opinions regarding the benefits of blockchain boil down to the control over personal information.

Self-sovereignty stands as one of the biggest benefits of blockchain-based digital IDs, according to Martis. This means that blockchain empowers users to share partial or selective information with their service providers instead of handing over their complete identity.

With blockchain-based IDs eradicating the misuse of information, experts envision the birth of a truly trustless system without the involvement of third parties. Gentry, too, reiterated verifiability, traceability and uniqueness as some of the major benefits brought about by blockchain, as she highlighted that blockchain IDs cannot be duplicated because it's on the distributed ledger. “All the Digital ID can be verified on the blockchain and can be traced back to the owners' account which can also be used for Know Your Customer,” she added.

Limitations of blockchain-based digital IDs

Mainstream acceptance of blockchain-based digital IDs will ultimately have to mean overcoming the most pressing challenges that threaten to hinder its adoption. Some of the roadblocks that stand out in the current landscape include a lack of education among the masses and a supportive regulatory environment.

On the education front, Gentry has noticed a fast-changing scenario brought about by mainstream discussions and widespread adoption of the technology. However, the creation of pro-crypto regulations will need greater intervention from industry players to help countries and institutions get onboarded onto the blockchain network.

Martis concurred with Gentry’s thoughts on regulations as he highlighted that blockchain IDs, no matter how decentralized, will need attestation or recognition by the issuing authorities. He added: “if the issuing authorities don’t recognize the validity of the blockchain IDs, then the same cannot be used for availing a majority of public services. This in my opinion is the biggest limitation.”

Blockchain of choice for ID-ing people

Given that a majority of real-world identity systems are under the purview of governments and sovereigns, Martis envisions greater adoption of permissioned distributed ledger networks for issuing Identities that require government services.

Gentry noted that choosing the perfect blockchain for IDing people or goods will require weighing the unique advantages and limitations of the various blockchain ecosystems. While highlighting the existing concerns such as Ethereum’s gas fees or Solana’s infamous outages, the blockchain advisor suggested that Binance’s BNB Chain is the perfect choice of blockchain because of its high transactions per second and low latency and fees.

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Speaking from personal experience, Gupta shared that Indian state governments tend to choose a middle ground wherein instead of a single authority fully in control of citizen identities, a group of independent departments will share a common distributed ledger that hosts citizen identities, anchored periodically on a public blockchain.

The Maharashtra government is currently working to deploy a scalable blockchain-based ID system for a tribal population of 1.2 million. Martis explains that the IDs created will be used by various departments to perform analytics and identify the right beneficiaries for various national schemes.

Regardless of the challenges that slow down blockchain adoption across business verticals, the advantages of the technology make its dominance inevitable. Government organizations and private entities have amped up efforts in uncovering futureproof fintech solutions via blockchain innovations. Blockchain disruptions that are well-positioned to go mainstream in addition to identity management include localized CBDCs, supply chain solutions and cross-border settlements.

Decentralized identities or DIDs (decentralized identifiers) have yet to see wide-scale implementation. According to Martis, they should be settled or issued by highly decentralized public blockchains that are outside state control, adding that “Bitcoin and Ethereum stand out as the obvious choices in this regard.”

‘Unique phenomenon’: All 5B toncoins mined on PoS TON blockchain

June 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The TON blockchain has always been proof-of-stake, while the mining of toncoin began “spontaneously and randomly” in 2020, according to the TON Foundation.

The TON Foundation, an organization developing the Telegram-initiated blockchain project, the TON blockchain, on Tuesday officially announced that TON miners have mined the final toncoin.

"Tens of thousands of miners have mined the entire issuance of toncoins, which was about 5 billion tokens,” TON Foundation founding member and core developer Anatoly Makosov said in a statement to Cointelegraph. The last toncoin was mined on June 28, he noted.

The end of toncoin mining marks a major milestone in TON's distribution, starting its new era as an entirely PoS blockchain. From now on, new toncoins will only enter circulation via PoS validation, the TON Foundation said. That will result in a cut in the total influx of new toncoins into the network by around 75% to the existing limit of 200,000 tokens per day.

The TON price has immediately reacted to the news, surging 34% over the past 24 hours. The token is trading at $1.41, according to data from CoinGecko.

*TON seven-day price chart. Source: CoinGecko*

By definition, proof-of-stake, or PoS, is a consensus algorithm that operates depending on a validator’s stake in the network. The PoS algorithm is opposed to proof-of-work, or PoW, the original consensus algorithm of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which is based on blocks validated through computing power provided by miners.

According to TON's whitepaper, its blockchain uses a PoS approach for generating new blocks. However, its unique infrastructure somehow allowed miners to generate toncoins using the PoW consensus as well, Makosov stated:

“The TON blockchain has always been proof-of-stake; the novelty is that even in a PoS blockchain it is possible to write a smart contract that can be mined according to PoW principles.”

“If you put the entire coin issuance of the blockchain on such a smart contract, you get a PoS blockchain, but with a distribution of coins in the form of mining. As far as we know no one has done this before,” the developer added.

According to Makosov, the current TON network was launched on Nov. 15, 2019, while the coin issuance was put on smart contracts that could be mined on July 7, 2020. The tokens were placed in special "giver" smart contracts, allowing anyone to participate in the mining. “Users mined around 200,000 TON daily,” an official post devoted to TON’s history of mining reads.

“Mining on the proof-of-stake TON blockchain was a unique phenomenon to behold,” the post notes, adding that mining on TON commenced “spontaneously and randomly” after the Telegram team agreed on a settlement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and was forced to terminate its involvement in TON.

Celsius denies allegations on Alex Mashinsky trying to flee US

June 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky wasn’t trying to leave the U.S. last week but has continued to work on recovering liquidity and operations, the company has claimed.

Troubled crypto lending firm Celsius is putting their best foot forward to recover operations alongside CEO Alex Mashinsky, who currently stays in the United States, the company has claimed.

A spokesperson for Celsius has denied rumors that the company’s CEO tried to flee the U.S. last week amid the ongoing liquidity crisis of the Celsius Network.

The representative told Cointelegraph on Monday that the firm continues working on restoring liquidity, stating:

“All Celsius employees — including our CEO — are focused and hard at work in an effort to stabilize liquidity and operations. To that end, any reports that the Celsius CEO has attempted to leave the U.S. are false.”

Celsius’ statement came shortly after Mike Alfred, co-founder of the crypto analytics firm Digital Assets Data, took to Twitter on Sunday to claim that Mashinsky attempted to leave the country last week via Morristown Airport in New Jersey.

Citing an anonymous source, Alfred alleged that Celsius’s CEO was trying to go to Israel. “Unclear at this moment whether he was arrested or simply barred from leaving,” he added.

Alfred’s claims followed a massive GameStop-like “short squeeze” of Celsius, with Celsius’ native token Celsius (CEL) jumping 300% in one week by June 21. CEL price also abruptly rallied more than 600% on June 14, with analysts attributing the event to an exchange glitch or liquidation of short traders.

At the time of writing, CEL is trading at $0.741, down around 5% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Celsius’ native token is still up more than 160% over the past 14 days.

*Celsius Network token (CEL) 30-day price chart. Source: CoinGecko*

Some industry observers in the crypto community have expressed skepticism about Alfred’s tweets about Mashinsky, with many considering his allegations as FUD.

If @Mashinsky attempted to leave the country this week, why are you reporting it now exactly when the CEL price is going down? Seems very coincidental Mike Alfud. And why no mainstream media or crypto media is reporting this? #CelShortSqueeze https://t.co/ynJbzWib9o
— Otis — #CelShortSqueeze ©️ ⚡️ (@otisa502) June 27, 2022

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Celsius officially announced that it would be “pausing all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts” on June 13. United States regulators subsequently started an investigation into Celsius as multiple accounts on the network were frozen.

According to some analysts, Celsius’ liquidity issues should be attributed to shortcomings of the existing crypto lending model in general, as other lenders in the market have faced similar problems recently.

Celsius has been working hard to fix the consequences of the platform’s liquidity crisis, reportedly onboarding advisers and restructuring consultants to help the platform handle potential filing for bankruptcy. On June 18, Celsius’ lead investor BnkToTheFuture and its co-founder Simon Dixon offered to assist the network by deploying a recovery plan.

What is StrongBlock (STRONG) and how does it work?

June 25, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Strongblock creates platforms and protocols with the intention of revolutionizing how blockchain networks compensate the nodes that protect and sustain them.

The digital financial environment continues to develop almost every second, which is no surprise to those in the crypto sector. Among such technological advancements, a new project called StrongBlock has popularized the concept of the node as a service (NaaS) on the blockchain. NaaS is an alternative to running entire blockchain nodes on your own; it provides developer infrastructure and tools for setting up and managing blockchain nodes.

Connected blockchain nodes relay, transmit and store decentralized blockchain data. But, what is a blockchain node? A node, also known as a Full Node, is a device that stores the blockchain's whole transaction history. But, who is behind the creation of the StrongBlock ecosystem?

The StrongBlock team includes CEO David Moss and chief technology officer Brian Abramson, who are enterprise software and blockchain veterans. Corey Lederer, chief product officer, is also among the StrongBlock founders' team and has extensive experience in managing technology products.

StrongBlock sees the blockchain as the way of the future, but unless you're well-versed with this technological breakthrough, it can be a risky place to enter. As a result, StrongBlocks' objective is to make it easier for anyone to support and participate in blockchains.

This article will deep dive into the NaaS concept and explore what makes StrongBlock unique, how to make money through StrongBlock and how to buy the STRONG token.

StrongBlock explained

StrongBlock is a blockchain platform aimed at revolutionizing the way blockchain networks operate. The reason for its simplification is the simple NaaS tool, which allows users who aren't well-versed in blockchain to build a blockchain-compliant node quickly while compensating them for running it.

Before StrongBlock's NaaS, running Ethereum nodes required an extensive understanding of blockchain as well as the ability to code and a server capable of running the node throughout the day. In summary, diving into nodes before StrongBlock required either a lot of effort or a high level of knowledge to make it simple.

In addition, rewards were reserved for miners that solved complex mathematical problems, whereas no such monetary rewards were distributed to nodes. There is no way to assess the performance of nodes.

To address the above issues, StrongBlock automated all of the processes, allowing everyone to participate in the blockchain revolution. Users can create a node in seconds using the StrongBlock platform. They can also add their node to obtain daily STRONG token rewards. STRONG is StrongBlock's governance token, which developers use to enable token holders to contribute to determining the protocol's future.

What are Strong nodes?

A Strong node is a node that supports the Ethereum network. It rewards node operators a “Node Universal Basic Income” (NUBI) based on the number of Ethereum blocks they contribute to the network's upkeep. However, the number of nodes, token price, node revenue and nonfungible token (NFT) ownership are all factors that influence rewards; they are variable and not guaranteed.

Strong nodes are run as a service; therefore, they do not require hardware and this allows anyone, even non-technical people, to build a blockchain-compliant node in seconds and get paid for running it.

How does StrongBlock work?

The StrongBlock protocol is designed to give NUBI continually. NUBI rewards are currently paid in STRONG, and in the future, the company will be paying them as NFTs. The protocol is then governed by those who have obtained STRONG in this manner. Potential reward shortfalls can be rectified by the community in a variety of ways as the protocol grows.

The rewards are measured based on ongoing contributions per node, burning STRONG for NFTs, renewal fees, lowering NUBI and creating different NUBI classes. Furthermore, there are two methods for using nodes within the StrongBlock protocol. Bringing your own Node (BYoN) offers additional flexibility and the ability to further personalize your node, whereas StrongBlock NaaS is faster and easier to set up.

Both approaches offer the same base NUBI incentives, but future additions may give BYoN nodes more opportunities than NaaS nodes. Also, the monthly fee for NaaS is $14.95 (paid in ETH), whereas it varies in the case of BYoN.

What is a STRONG token?

The STRONG token (now referred to as STRNGR) is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token that runs on the Ethereum network. The coin is a governance token that will eventually lead to StrongBlock's decentralized system.

While the team generated 10 million STRONG tokens, they burned roughly 95% to develop a correct tokenomics for the system. The system continues to burn extra STRONG tokens with each new node deployed to maintain a deflationary token supply.

How to launch a blockchain node using StrongBlock

To launch a blockchain node using StrongBlock, ensure that you have a digital wallet. StrongBlock's NaaS platform is compatible with MetaMask and does not support multisig wallets.

To cover the transaction's gas fees, you'll need to buy some ETH. Connect your wallet to your preferred crypto exchange and purchase 10 STRNGR tokens. MetaMask can be downloaded as a browser extension from the MetaMask website. Customers can choose Chrome, Brave, or Firefox browsers.

Check the gas fees by connecting your wallet containing 10 STRNGR to the app.strongblock.com website. The Etherscan Gas Tracker can be used to check gas fees, which vary based on the crypto-economy.

Setting up or launching a node costs 10 STRONG tokens plus gas fees. Each node is then rewarded with 0.091 STRONG tokens, which can serve as a source of passive income. To create blockchain nodes using StrongBlock, follow the steps below:

You'll be able to pay node fees, see your accrued awards, and claim rewards after your node is created. The first monthly node fee is included when you create your node. After that, you'll have to manually pay the node charge every 30 days. However, the node fee payment structure has a 90-day prepaid restriction.

If you are not able to see the created node, check for the approved, pending or canceled transactions to speed up the process.

What are the tax implications of StrongBlock?

Because of the nature of StrongBlock and the impossibility of selling the asset, Ethereum node services cannot be classified as an asset in the crypto and tax worlds; instead, they will be classified as an expense.

As a result, when you buy StrongBlock, the first purchase will be considered a business expense, and everything you earn from it will be considered a taxable income or earning. The taxable rate will depend upon the country of your residence and can be determined by your present income level. To understand your taxable obligations, you may consider reading Cointelegraph's guide to filing cryptocurrency taxes in the US, UK, and Germany.

Is StrongBlock a good investment?

If you are a blockchain lover, you may find StrongBlock a promising project with which to launch Ethereum nodes and earn passive income. However, considering the sky-high gas fees and crypto market volatility, you should always conduct due diligence before putting money into any project.

That said, if you think that your financial objectives, the organization's vision and the return on investment are aligned, then you may become an active participant in the project and get rewarded with STRONG tokens. Nonetheless, do not forget the risk exposure you are willing to take.

The platform intends to support other protocols like Ethereum's consensus layer upgrade (previously ETH 2.0) soon. It also plans to introduce features such as NFT gamification and a marketplace, which may encourage blockchain enthusiasts to participate in the blockchain revolution led by StrongBlock.

Nonfungible airdrops: Could NFA become the next big acronym in the crypto space?

June 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Airdrop

Airdrops are a great marketing tool, but they can have downsides for crypto projects and investors alike. Is there a way around this?

Airdrops have become the bread and butter of the crypto world — for good reason.

They're an indispensable marketing tool for up-and-coming projects that want to create a buzz around their ecosystems.

Done right, distributing free tokens to the public can help elevate demand — and unlock big benefits for recipients. After all, if these altcoins end up being listed on major exchanges at a later date, their value could explode.

Unfortunately though, downsides have started to emerge. These campaigns aren't just reaching enthusiasts who passionately believe in what a project has to offer, but "airdrop hunters" who are merely scouring for ways to turn a quick profit.

Airdrop hunters typically want to sell off the tokens they've received for free — as soon as they can. And for cryptocurrency projects at their very early stages, this can be bad news — undermining carefully cultivated tokenomics and causing the value of a coin to fall.

The current bear market has also unearthed another problem. Many projects are now postponing the schedules for unlocking new tokens — waiting until the economic climate improves slightly. And while this is usually in the best interests of a project and their investors in the long run, it can be disappointing news for those who won tokens in an airdrop. Why? Because they're no longer able to freely trade or liquidate the digital assets they're entitled to.

So… what's the answer? Can airdrops be revitalized, eliminating some of the downsides that have emerged in recent years? And is there a way for hodlers to benefit — even if they haven't got their hands on tokens just yet?

How NFTs can shake up airdrops

Right now, projects are attempting to walk this tightrope between gaining publicity and engaging in marketing strategies that could damage their ecosystems. How can you get new users to follow a Telegram or Twitter account in order to be eligible for an airdrop, and incentivize them to stay involved with the community long term?

Nonfungible airdrops — otherwise known as NFAs — could be the answer here. And, as you might expect, they incorporate some of the technology relied upon by NFTs to generate a "win-win" situation for projects and airdrop winners alike.

NFAs aim to represent the true value of an airdrop reward when an initial DEX offering (otherwise known as an IDO) takes place. This is achieved through a model that's not too dissimilar to a futures contract — an agreement to buy or sell assets that will be activated at a future date.

The only difference is that the project owner releasing the NFA makes a promise to deliver the token or other digital assets on a future launch date. And as each airdrop winner ends up receiving different rewards under this model, there's a one-of-a-kind gift that's nonfungible.

In this scenario, the nonfungible airdrop will boast a mechanism that allows holders to claim their tokens when a project launches — in effect, capturing the value of future tokens. Alternatively, it is possible to achieve instant returns by trading this NFA on a peer-to-peer marketplace. What makes this concept so compelling is that those who opt for an immediate transaction will miss out on perks in the long run.

Nonfungible airdrops can be equipped with exclusive avatars and special benefits, such as discounts and free trials on the goods and services offered by a crypto project. Holders could also be granted exclusive early access to future features — and better still, their tokens will be waiting for them when they launch.

Have your cake and eat it

Arken Finance says it is the mastermind of the world's first nonfungible airdrop, a concept that has the potential to shake up the DeFi landscape immeasurably.

The DeFi trading portal can be found across eight networks — and its goal is to arm investors with a greater number of trading tools, all while reducing friction.

Arken had commenced an airdrop campaign back in November 2021, but this was postponed as the markets began to cool. Now, it's pioneered NFAs as a way of igniting excitement about its future plans without falling into the common pitfalls of airdrops that have surfaced.

Now, 2,000 winners of its trading competition have been rewarded with their very own NFA — each storing a different amount of tokens, and each with different benefits. They'll be able to reclaim this cryptocurrency at a later date, but there's plenty of exclusive advantages to keep them occupied in the meantime.

"The team strongly believes in this application and is confident that this technology can be marketed to DeFi project owners in the future," Arken said in a recent blog post.

And while enthusiasts may have missed out on the chance to own one of the first-ever NFAs during the initial airdrop, the project says subsequent rounds are planned in the future.

Some of the perks include an exemption from fees for the first 24 hours of a trading competition — and NFA holders will have their own special tier in the contest. On this mini-competitive track, they'll subsequently be entitled to separate rewards. In addition, exclusive insights and fast-lane customer support is provided through a VIP Discord channel, and owners will have a front-row seat to the premium features that Arken Finance has in the pipeline.

It's a bold experiment, and one that could unleash new levels of loyalty in crypto projects that are getting off the ground for the first time. And for those who win airdrops, it delivers far more than tokens. Not only will they have a status symbol in the form of distinctive avatars that few members of the community own, but they'll get an enhanced experience through VIP channels and front-of-the-line customer support. For those who really believe in a project's potential, that's gold dust in itself.

There's excitement as Arken Finance's cutting-edge experiment continues — and the project's hoping that "NFA" will be the next acronym to become prolific in cryptocurrency circles.

Learn more about Arken Finance

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you with all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.

How blockchain can open up energy markets: EU DLT expert explains

June 23, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The main barrier to the wide adoption of DLT solutions by the energy system stakeholders is how energy markets are structured.

Aside from the buzzing neologism of Web3, there is a bit less catchy but hardly less important concept of Industry 4.0, which includes the new and revolutionary drivers of the next generation’s industrial landscape. And, especially when it comes to the energy sector, blockchain lies at the heart of these technologies.

The authors of a recently published EUBlockchain Observatory report “Blockchain Applications in the Energy Sector” are convinced that distributed ledger technology (DLT) could become a key enabler technology and has a very high potential to influence or even disrupt the energy sector. This comes as a no surprise, given the five D’s of the Digital Green Shift: deregulation, decarbonization, decentralization, digitization and democratization.

The report highlights the major directions for blockchain in the sector and supplements them with the actual case studies and insights from energy market stakeholders such as Volkswagen, Elia Group, Energy Web Foundation and others.

Cointelegraph spoke to one of the report’s co-authors, commercial director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region at Energy Web and a member of EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum, Ioannis Vlachos.

Vlachos elaborated on the most intriguing parts and concepts of the document, such as the granularity criterium, the importance of self-sovereign identity and the possible role of DLT in developing the non-electric energy sources consumption.

Cointelegraph: The report notes that, to this day, no blockchain/DLT solution has been widely adopted by energy system stakeholders. Why do you think this is? Could you try to answer it?

Ioannis Vlachos: The main barrier to the wide adoption of blockchain solutions by the energy system stakeholders is related to the way that energy markets are currently structured. The regulatory requirement, in most countries worldwide, for small-scale flexibility assets such as residential batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps and others makes it possible to participate in energy markets only via their representation by an aggregator.

Considering a more direct market design where flexible assets, irrespectively of their capacity, can directly bid into an energy market will minimize their marginal costs and will promote and foster the participation of small-scale distributed energy resources (DERs) in energy markets.

This need for the direct participation of assets in markets was identified and considered to be an overarching principle in the joint report “Roadmap on the Evolution of the Regulatory Framework for Distributed Flexibility” by Entso-E and the European Associations representing distribution system operators published in June 2021, where “access to all markets for all assets either directly or aggregated” is recommended.

Blockchain technology, via the concept of decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs), provides the necessary tools to allow this direct access of small-scale DERs into energy markets.

CT: How could blockchain be used to track the non-electric energy sources, such as biofuels?

IV: Blockchain technology provides the means to create a trusted ecosystem of actors, where all information exchanged between assets, systems and actors can be independently verified by means of DIDs and VCs. This is extremely important to provide the required audit trails in non-electric energy supply chains such as natural gas, green hydrogen and others.

Recently, Shell, together with Accenture, American Express Global Business Travel with the support of Energy Web as the blockchain solution provider, announced Avelia, one of the world’s first blockchain-powered digital book-and-claim solutions for scaling sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

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The report claims that the application of blockchain in the energy sector is likely to be further explored and advanced.

What are the premises for such an optimistic conclusion?

This conclusion is mainly drawn on the premise that despite the highly regulated energy environment, we have recently seen a large number of projects in the broader energy sector that use blockchain technology. They do this by either implementing use cases outside of the existing regulatory framework such as Shell’s SAF project or with the support of the national regulators and market operators such as projects EDGE and Symphony in Australia.

The EDGE and Symphony projects are supported by state government agencies, the Australia Energy Market Operato and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and implement an innovative approach to the integration of consumer-owned DERs to enable their participation in a future energy market based on a decentralized approach. In both projects, Energy Web’s decentralized blockchain-based digital infrastructure is used by assigning digital identities to participants and thus facilitating the secure and efficient exchange and validation of market participant data.

Recent: Celsius’ crisis exposes problems of low liquidity in bear markets

Moreover, we cannot neglect the fact that blockchain technologies are referenced within the European Union action plan for digitalizing the energy sector, focusing on enhancing the uptake of digital technologies.

IV: The concept of granularity refers to the need to increase the frequency of data that will allow the traceability of energy commodities. Especially in the case of electricity, moving from a monthly or annual matching of energy consumption with renewable electricity being produced in a specific location to a more granular (e.g., hourly) is considered to be the best practice since it minimizes energy greenwashing. In this respect, Energy Web, with the collaboration of Elia, SP Group, and Shell, developed and released an open-source toolkit for simplifying 24/7 clean energy procurement.

CT: Could you explain the concept of granularity, which sets the demand for blockchain in the energy sector?

CT: The report mentions a self-sovereign identity, defining it as “a growing paradigm that promotes individual control over identity data rather than relying on external authorities.” It’s easy to imagine this kind of paradigm with personal data online, but what importance does it have for energy production and consumption?

IV: The importance of self-sovereign identities (SSI) for energy production and consumption stems from the fact that prosumer’s energy data can be considered as private data [Prosumer is a term combining consumer and producer roles by one individual or entity.] Especially in the setting of the European Union and under the light of the General Data Protection Regulation, the granularity (sampling frequency) of smart metering data can be highly associated with the privacy of data. Moreover, given the fact that new business models are emerging that utilize prosumer energy data to facilitate the provision of energy efficiency and management services, empowering the prosumer via the concept of SSI to consent for the distribution, processing and storage of their energy data is more of a necessity rather than a luxury.

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