Blockchain For Climate — Four Solutions
Here’s four blockchain opportunities that drive commercial profit and show the power of transformative technologies to deliver for both the climate and the bottom line.
Skip these two paragraphs if you know what blockchain is
If the Internet is a decentralised way of communicating about things, blockchain is the decentralised way of agreeing things and then enforcing them.
There’s a bunch written on what blockchain is, so I’m going to skip that. If you want to catch up, listen to the Tim Ferriss interview with Nick Szabo.
It’s long. It’s technical. It’s oh so gooood.
The short answer is, blockchain is ideal for chatting and agreeing things between you and I, rather than us having to go up and then back down a chain of command to ask permission or get a rubber stamp.
Let’s get into it
Here’s four uses of blockchain that allow people to agree things without having to go ‘the man’ whether that ‘man’ is a lawyer, accountant, bank or politician who sets the rules.
1. Utah Teen Loans Cash to Ugandan Grandma
Every enterprising kids wants to make a dollar, and in the future it turns out that a teen in Idaho makes more money by loaning his pocket money to a Ugandan grandma so she can lease-to-own a solar system for her home and market stall.
This isn’t as far fetched as it sounds as already, over 90,000 power systems by a company called Fenix, have been sold in Uganda financed at $0.15 per day over a text based mobile money system.
It doesn’t take a huge leap for the telco, in this case MTN, to create a blockchain interface built in to keep track of payments in the same way the text based financial system does.
The enterprising kid who wants to help people, might also turn a small profit doing it. The Ugandan grandma can now trade at her market stall after dark using a cheaper and cleaner alternative to the kerosene lamps and candles. It also reduces the number of trips for firewood she needs. The kid makes some more pocket money, the grandma makes more money at her stall and the total black carbon emissions from biomass fuels is reduced while simultaneously reducing deforestation.
The opportunity: For product manufacturers to make systems that interface easily into the blockchain in the same way they have with hardware that accepts low cost SIM cards.
Where The Money Is At:
Potential revenue Crowd-sourced funding of 10W and 20W solar modules by American teens, represented by the 21 teens taking President Trump to court in February 2018. #youthvgov
Potential costs avoided Firewood 10,000 UGX (5.20 USD) per two bundles (about 20 sticks), which lasts for about 4–6 days.
Potential addressable market 600 million Africans that lack access to electricity.
Who is best placed to monetise the opportunity Engie, who acquired Fenix in October 2017, and MTN who is the telco that the messaging system runs across. Engie, could empower a blockchain company such as Australian company PowerLedger who recently raised $34m ICO from 15,000 supporters.
Referenced: Safe Uganda | Engie Buys Fenix To Expand in Africa
2. ‘Drone Shepherd’ Plants 100,000 Trees in Myanmar
Drones don’t always have to drop explosive payloads on unwitting assailants. The same technology can be used to map topography and ground coverage to decide where’s best to fire seedlings into the ground in rapid succession. Afforestation baby.
Mangrove seedlings just so happen to be 10x more effective at carbon dioxide absorption than standard old trees, and they happen to be pretty good at reducing the damaging effects of coastal flooding.
Each drone pilot can control up to six individual drones, planting a total of 100,000 new trees a day.
So those 2.7 million mangrove trees that took months to be planted by hand on the Irrawaddy Delta, could be planted in under a month.
Each of the six drone would record its performance to the blockchain. The counter-party who wants trees planted would then release the money to pay for the Drone Shepherds fantastic work.
Wherever there’s a time and labour saving, capital will follow so this is a solution to watch. For example, in NEXT Foundation is a strategic investor in causes with an environmental impact who could setup a smart contract that any drone shepherd globally could agree to, implement on and then get paid once the contract has been completed. The next 400,000 trees planted on an island like Rotoroa Island might be a blockchain enacted contract.
Where The Money Is At:
Potential revenue It creates new possibilities to ‘drone shepherd’ forests across previously uneconomic or unsafe areas to plant.
Potential costs avoided $150,000 per 100 hectares. The time intensive labour resources required to plant large scale areas.
Potential addressable market Areas of land restoration investment where you want to maximise the area planted by reducing the costs of planting.
Who is best placed to monetise the opportunity BioCarbon Engineering is already operating on 6 continents with well established partners world-wide.
Referenced: Mangroves in Myanmar | BioCarbon Engineering Doc | NEXT Foundation
3. Instant Climate Flood Insurance Payouts
As insurance claims for flooding increases, there’s going to be an increase in both the delays of insurance assessments as insurers struggle to keep up with the frequency of claims. This pain is felt by policy holders an creates the opportunity for blockchain executed flood policy holders.
This works by replacing that big folder of insurance papers with a smart contract held on the blockchain that is automatically paid out on to an agreed amount in the event of a flood.
The insurer mail you tamper proof flood detection devices with in built cameras and GPS before the flood.
You install them around your house and bam, you now have instant flood insurance payouts agreed in advance.
No more waiting for a claim assessor after the incident, and you having to chase the call centre. All your insurer needs for proof of a claim is the data and images stored on the blockchain directly by the device and signed by the devices own hardware-secured private key.
This time-stamped data, coupled with GPS location including height, provides immutable proof of the water detection event occurring at a certain time and date.
Where The Money Is At:
Potential revenue An insurer that delivers instant payout on flooding has a unique market differentiator.
Potential costs avoided An insurer can more accurately determine its actuarial table for repeatedly flooded areas using the data sensors deployed in a smart suburb.
Potential addressable market Home owners who are early adopters of the Internet of Things revolution such as purchasers of the Amazon Echo and Nest climate control unit.
Who is best placed to monetise the opportunity Startup Up companies like Love HZ who have implemented flood protection solutions in Oxford, UK partnering with large flood insurers who want to minimise their payout costs through proactive flood management.
Referenced: Internet of Business Flood Protection | ARM based chips | Outlaw Smart Contracts
4. Chinese Ask Manuka Honey Blockchain, Then Buy
The Achilles heel of big companies, suppliers and countries is traceability and transparency. Known traceability is being able to reliably answer the question ‘where did I get it from and where did it go?’ from source through to final destination.
Today, the food system is tracked with a whole bunch of methods that don’t talk together. It relies on a paper trail, some track and trace receipts and some computer data stores, so you can never have a long view of the food system. You have to ring people up. That means there room for counterfeit goods which in turn, reduces the trust-ability of goods, particularly high value goods like Manuka Honey.
While Manuka Honey has track and trace systems like Steens Honey, it relies on middle men and that in itself is a system vulnerability.
For New Zealand’s highest priced export, this is far from ideal, a scenario recognised by Ministry of Primary Agriculture in a new draft exports requirements for bee products.
This sets out everything a blockchain specialist (you can find one here) needs to define the block sigs.
Much of this could be automatically written to the block chain by a smart device such as apiary site location and movement of hives using GPS, harvest declarations through high definition cameras and transfer movements through check in, check out scans with downstream extractors, packers and exporters.
It’s all there. How is this a climate solution? Well, bees are an integral part of regenerative agriculture.
Where The Money Is At:
Potential revenue Farmers who are transitioning to regenerative agriculture open up a new revenue source as beekeepers.
Beekeepers who give Chinese consumers direct verifiability on the blockchain are going to get more money for their medical grade honey. Simply.
Potential costs avoided Compliance costs as regulated by the Ministry of Primary Industries.
Potential addressable market Every high value export out of a primary agriculture country.
Who is best placed to monetise the opportunity Companies like Buzz Tech that secure hives from thefts like this one from my home town honey maker Arataki, Hawke’s Bay.
Referenced: Arataki Honey Theft | Manuka Health Traceability | Regenerative Agriculture Principles | Bee Populations and Regenerative Agriculture
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