Swytch

Swytch – HELPING THE WORLD REDUCE ITS CARBON FOOTPRINT

One of the largest contributors to climate change is the burning of fossil fuels as a primary source of energy, heat, and transportation. The burning of hydrocarbons released nearly 30 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2016, as well as toxic and harmful compounds such as mercury, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide. While investment in renewables has been scaling, the current state of renewable energy production is far from where it should be to mitigate environmental damage caused by traditional greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). As of 2015, only 10% of global energy consumed came from hydro, solar, and wind sources. The incentives for scaling renewables that are in place today largely reflect legacy ideas, technologies and mechanisms that are inherently flawed. Participants in these programs are frustrated by the fragmentation, fraud, administrative cost, and lack of focus on true environmental impact. More must be done to mitigate the impacts of climate change and empower people to take a more active role in addressing one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Swytch was born from a collaboration between utility-scale system builders, large energy customers, the energy finance and trading community, as well as cities to address this need with incentive and governance mechanisms that actually work. At its most basic level, Swytch Token will provide an incentive for clean energy producers and fills a gap in today’s market for verified renewable energy data and consumption. Swytch will use open-source applications, protocols, and algorithms to verify and reward investments in renewable resources worldwide. The reward will be in the form of an ERC20 compliant token that aims to incentivize investments in a wide range of renewable and sustainable assets and infrastructure (rooftop solar, distributed utility solar, grid scale solar projects, wind projects, storage systems, etc.).

From large-scale industrial power infrastructure to small residential assets, Swytch Tokens can be generated anywhere electricity is produced. Swytch will provide geo-stamped credentials for production of renewable and sustainable technologies which will serve to create invaluable data sets capturing production information and driving adoption of renewables where future production will have the most impact. Furthermore, the generation and transfer of Swytch Tokens will accelerate investments in and adoption of renewable and sustainable technologies by rewarding production and creating a network in which those rewards can be exchanged.

THE PRIMARY BENEFITS THAT SW YTCH OFFERS OVER EXISTING INCENTIVE PROGRAMS INCLUDE:

• Standardization and liquidity where today there is fragmentation and market inefficiency;
• Token based incentives for accelerating innovation in sustainable technologies and deploying them at a global scale; and
• Decentralized, public, and secure verification of renewable energy production and transaction data and lowering administrative costs.

As a result, Swytch will serve as a compelling solution to layer onto existing markets for verified renewable energy production & consumption. Improving upon existing programs will further drive adoption in key segments, including:

• Corporate sustainability programs; programs who wish to hold Swytch Token as proof of offset or as a means of investment in future renewable asset development;
• Environmentally conscious consumers who wish to use tokens to fund sustainable services and/or engage in the community; and
• Governmental entities, including “smart cities” who wish to hold tokens as a reserve for local sustainability tokens or to stake into the “oracle” for modelling and data consumption purposes

To meet these aims, a robust set of solutions has already been developed and tested. Currently, a pilot is being run in Germany with hundreds of assets representing over 1.5Gw of energy capacity. The suite of technologies in place to support the pilot and rollout of the system on Day 1 includes:

1. An ERC20 compliant token issued to incentivize energy production and required to access the network and engage in the consumption of data and platform functionality
2. An “oracle” designed to leverage 3rd party data, Swytch network data, and advanced modelling to estimate the relative environmental impact of each unit of energy and allocate tokens accordingly
3. A Proof-of-Production (POP) protocol that creates evidential proof of energy production leveraging data from existing utility grade smart meters; and
4. A platform for token holders to access network data, leverage the functionality of tools within the platform (e.g., production estimators), and monitor their asset production and that of the network overall

The Swytch team is partnering with organizations and vendors to bring both producers and consumers together within the Swytch network. To date, the lineup of partnerships includes well known players in the energy and infrastructure space as well as well-respected technology firms. This list includes:

• Atonomi – Edge level IOT device security and identity protocols
• Bancor – Smart contract design and Network Token Protocol
• Berkshire Cloud Evident Proof Platform – POP blockchain design and implementation
• Black & Veatch – Technology and “oracle” allocation model developer
• BTC Labs – CoinCart token sale platform and blockchain smart contracts
• E2M – European renewable energy aggregator and pilot partner
• Energy Web Foundation – Technology and network building
• HST Solar – Estimator design and data inputs
• NDimensional – Machine learning/“oracle” allocation evolution
• Winjit – Mobile app and smart contract support

WHY BLOCKCHAIN?

The fundamental benefits of blockchain directly apply to many of the issues that plague current incentive systems. Namely, the blockchain allows for process and data integrity and frictionless exchange. A value-based token, when combined with the POP protocol and the “oracle” allocation process and algorithms, enables the following:

1. Enhanced Liquidity: An energy credit instrument that has inherent value and can be exchanged on a blockchain can erase artificial global market barriers. By leveraging blockchain technology to verify and clear transactions it will be easier to trade tokens. This will allow the Swytch Token to capture the value created by reducing market inefficiencies and by mitigating the impact of climate change on a global scale.
2. Accelerated Investment: Part of the problem with current incentive programs is a lack of scarcity. For example, under existing REC programs, any time an agreed-upon unit of renewable energy is produced, a REC is granted. This does little to provide an incentive to invest in projects early where these types of programs are in place. Swytch takes a different approach by rewarding the marginal “impact” a unit of energy has as defined later in this white paper, such that accelerated deployments with greater immediate marginal impact are rewarded with greater token allocation. This should accelerate the rate of production which has the dual benefits of hastening the reversal of global warming and creating a network of token users that will further enhance liquidity. Lastly, certain elements of the blockchain, such as simplified tracking of ownership throughout the tokens lifetime, may incentivize financial innovations that provide additional economic incentives to create and trade tokens.
3. Reduced Costs for Verifying and Trading Renewable Energy Credentials: One of the key barriers in today’s market is the incredible administrative burden of legacy incentive programs. Third-party verification of production is a significant driver of cost and frustration to current renewable incentive program participants. Due to the transparent, decentralized, and trustless nature of the blockchain and IOT technology, there will be no need for third-party verification of production and ownership. This in turn will limit the need to build large regulatory bodies to in some way validate the validators. The speed and integrity of data exchange within a blockchain will also reduce costs driven by long transaction processes and fraud.

Blockchain technologies have been rapidly evolving over the last four years. Ethereum offers enhanced features relative to Bitcoin, and newer technologies have dealt with many of the issues around both Ethereum and Bitcoin with respect to performance, security, privacy, know-your-customer issues, block size, permissions, scalability, and computational power consumption. This trend will likely continue for the next few years. Swytch intends to capitalize on the blockchain’s evolution and improvement without being locked into any one protocol or platform.

WHY SWYTCH TOKENS?

The Swytch ecosystem creates a global vehicle to deploy resources directly into markets where renewables can yield the highest economic and fossil fuel replacement impact. Swytch’s platform design aims to encourage rational investments specifically in areas where carbon emissions are high or power generation is low. Swytch can accomplish this task by leveraging the “oracle”, an open-source dynamic adaptive control module (“DACM”), which allocates the number of tokens to reward participating nodes.

Swytch will leverage open-source blockchain and a Proof of Production consensus to verify investments in renewable resources worldwide. The Swytch platform rewards investments with tokens that are issued through an independently verifiable algorithm that will rely on consortium development and governance, as well as machine learning to build the most optimal allocation methodology.

From large-scale industrial power generation to small residential investments, Swytch Tokens will be minted anywhere renewable electricity is produced and consumed. Swytch will be providing geo and time-stamped credentials for production and consumption of renewable and sustainable technologies. Each Swytch Token used and accepted for commerce will directly support investments in, and accelerate the adoption of, renewable and sustainable technologies.