RED’s Video Podcast Transcript — Part II
Continuing from the first part of our video podcast transcript, we come to the second and final segment — the Q&A section:
Denis: One of the most burning questions seems to be: When will KWT trading begin? When will MWAT holders receive their initial charge, based on platform launch?
Armand: KiloWatt trading will be one of the last features introduced. We expect it to be introduced in December, when the platform is up and running and at the same time the users that have staked their MWAT will receive the initial bonus. So, Denis — you are the community’s voice right now.
Denis: Indeed.
How will the ownership records of produced energy be stored on the blockchain? Vali, perhaps?
Vali: So, with the blockchain that we’re developing for KWT, we’re introducing new types of transactions. One, which will allow us to actually input energy that is produced in
Armand: real-time, using specially developed WiFi meters, so the idea here is producers and consumers and of course prosumers, these are consumers which are also producers will have the option to install one of our specially designed WiFi meters which also come with a SIM card option. They will be able to generate the KW token in real time based on production or consumer the kilowatt tokens in real time based on their consumption and everything will be stored on a decentralized blockchain.
Vali: And will be available in real time on the RED Platform as well as the mobile app and the desktop.
Rareș: exactly all the statistics and so on.
Armand: This is important because you cannot do that cost-effectively with Ethereum for instance. It would cost more to store the data than to produce the energy.
Denis: Speaking of cost-effectiveness. How much is a wifi meter, who will install them for the end users?
Armand: So, the wifi meters come in several configurations. The basic ones which have a Wi-fi module and are used for measuring consumption will cost something up to 50 dollars and they should be installed by accredited electricians. They are installed after the distribution meter so inside your general electric board. They measure current and also voltage.
Denis: So, staking for example. Another big issue for the community. Will the further centralization mentioned by Vali through the use of SWAZM allow for staking from external wallets as well?
Vali: So, we were thinking about a system that will allow you to stake your Ether or BTC or MWAT. I mean, so we definitely will have that in the custom blockchain. It will be a mix between smart contracts and smartly designed systems that will allow staking of any kind of crypto in the system.
Armand: Basically the platform will allow you to stake. When I'm saying stake I mean deposit. So you will be able to deposit Bitcoin, Ethereum, you will be able to top up with fiat or with a credit card okay and the platform will allow you to stake your MWAT for a certain amount of time on order for you to receive your KW bonuses from our loyalty system from the producers and of course also for the franchises.
Denis: Indeed, speaking of.
Armand: Let’s not forget the franchises.
Denis: Quite true. One of the most important parts of our business model as I’ve comprehensively written about in Medium. Plug here.
Denis: Speaking of security issues. Will there be a third party security audit for the code before the full launch?
Armand: Yes there will be, as I told in the beginning and Vali explained, Vali has designed several security auditing systems for, even for some major exchanges, so I think we’re in good hands for security.
Denis: Will a KYC procedure be in place to access the platform, or is it available without?
Armand: KYC will be necessary for consumer and producer accounts. It won’t be necessary for users that don’t their consumption places or production places validated.
Denis: Right, so a bit more about SWAZM in that case. Any info that expands on how SWAZM will further decentralize RED-P. I mean we talked about kilowatt tokens being centralized. So the entire platform, in that case, will be not centralized.
Vali: Yeah so through SWAZM we want to practically decentralize everything, and I mean even the referrals that you get now will be on the blockchain itself.
Denis: You heard it here everyone.
Vali: There will be practical immersion to it, I mean you will see everyone’s referrals, you’ll see where they came from. I mean if somebody tries to cheat it will be there so there’s no reward for them. I mean imagine that all the data that RED’s platform will have, it will be trading and shapeshifting through MWAT to KWT and things like that. It will be open for everyone to see.
Armand: Except for personal data. We need to respect GDPR.
Denis: Very good. So another question, what, if anything is currently running successfully on SWAZM. This has come up several times in the community and they’re curious. Can you share, or is it under wraps?
Vali: It’s not really under wraps, I mean the security systems that we previously talked about are running on SWAZM, the trading platforms are running on SWAZM, the developer platforms are running on SWAZM. The RED backend is running on SWAZM. I mean there are experiments that were doing running on SWAZM.
Armand: Vali mentioned something interesting a few moments ago which I would like to expand because its important in the general economy of the project. There are some experiments that we are doing right now and its regarding mining and using computing power right now a lot of energy is wasted for processing transactions and solving mathematical equations which don’t have another purpose besides securing payments but there are so many fantastic applications for computing power when you have a decentralized blockchain and a network of mining rigs installed just to give you a few examples — you could build the world biggest AI and computing power, you can use the computing power in the mining rigs to create a huge global virtual library that allows for computing power decision to be decentralized, I think Vali has quite a few interesting applications which we are planning to integrate so our mining rigs won’t be just mining another cryptocurrency, we plan to use this computing power for the greater good and the users will receive MWAT instead at a rate 3 times higher than what they would receive when they are just selling the energy back to RED, plus the mining rigs would also mine the blockchain itself so they would also keep an instance of the database which is less of the centralization.
Vali: At least a piece of it because I have a solid blockchain, I mean we don’t want to get into the state that Ethereum is currently in, where in order to have on each miner 1.2 terabytes of data that are practically transaction loss.
Denis: On that topic, people have been asking whether the mining rigs will belong to RED or the customers.
Armand: All the equipment that RED will provide. Will be provided based on a subscription, and they will be in use by the customer and the customer will pay a monthly subscription for using the equipment and benefiting from the associated services.
Denis: So can they be run outside of a Type A territory?
Armand: Yes and that’s the nice part is everyone will be able to order our solar kits and mining rigs and start mining MWAT even if they’re not based in Romania or any other country where RED has an affiliated supplier, and you know there is speaking about affiliated suppliers, i think it’s important to mention that one of the most important aspects right now is to design features on the platform that will make the platform extremely attractive for even for other suppliers that have customer databases around the world so that they want to join the platform and use the platform and give access to their customers on the platform to buy cheaper energy and we are working on a few of these features, one of them being the payment gateway for other electricity suppliers to that their customers can pay with crypto using our mobile app, basically just scanning the barcode of the invoice and paying the energy and the supplier will receive fiat instead of crypto so that they won’t have an exchange risk because this is a major concern for energy suppliers, mainly they cannot withhold the exchanges so the platform will take the exchange risk and offer other energy suppliers fiat and the platform will take the crypto in the exchange.
Denis: Quite interesting, this essentially means that the platform will secure itself in terms of its computational power and the mining rigs are an integral part of the platform as an extension of it.
Armand: Exactly, so we want to make the platform as attractive as possible for energy suppliers around the world so that they take a franchise and start moving towards the platform with their entire customer database and all the features that we are developing represent an integrated unique selling proposition for these companies to be able to onboard new customers on the platform and as we know the crypto community worldwide is growing and is going to continue to grow and we want to be viewed and want to become the number 1 energy supplier for the crypto community and the first decentralized energy supplier on the blockchain.
Denis: Another question that came up would be, given the mining rigs themselves, people have been asking quite a bit about those, will there be a potential revenue calculator to figure out this part, especially now that, to be fair, now its a bit more interesting given that you also help the platform itself, by having mining rigs, and not only the platform, people too depending on which projects RED helps.
Armand: Exactly, so based on the SWAZM infrastructure, we plan to use part of this computational power for providing a computing layer for projects that are innovative, are socially responsible, and are geared towards the greater good. Me and Vali, we've been talking about some examples like all kinds of applicabilities, like scanning the people in your room with your smartphone and the smartphone can tell you their names based on their Facebook profile so this is something which I don’t know if we can implement because of the GDPR but there are other examples like using this compute power in medicine or using this compute power in universities.
Vali: And mostly, I mean a lot of AI applications from object recognition to sentimental analysis depending on quite a great scale of markers. I mean practically you can, I don’t know, recognize a RED logo in an account like really easy.
Denis: That’s very interesting Vali. Lots of potential applications.
Vali: Yeah we practically want to put this compute power, like we want to make the switch from proof of work that’s actually just a proof that has no additional benefit except providing consensus to something that really matters. I mean we want to be one of the first that uses a proof of compute where that compute can be anything from, I don’t know, your local developer trying to make a web app hosting it, build it and things like that, to a scientist that wants to build a new model that I don’t know, detects cats.
Denis: Indeed Vali, I mean one of the major problems right now with crypto, in general, is that so much computing power is used purely for financial gain and financial machinations in essence, it’s not contributing to anything wider in itself. If we can switch to something that actually has a benefit for society, this will pretty much be a revolution that others might want to switch to because currently a lot of energy is being used on something that isn’t actually productive for the wider society.
Vali: That’s right, I think that these mining rigs, we were also planning to install a small mining module into the wireless meter itself, we’re investigating that so practically you have a small box that also has some compute power in it and it will be a part of the RED Platform.
Denis: To be fair, even a phone has quite a lot of computing power in essence.
Armand: Exactly, which can be used.
Denis: Indeed. Wink wink, nudge nudge.
Denis: So, moving on to other things. How about that Guinness World Record Tour powered by nature. It was mentioned quite a few times but not a lot of details as such, given that we would want to make a bit of a mysterious launch can you give us a bit more in terms of that.
Armand: So. okay, as I told you Denis in the beginning, the Electric Tour is a new Guinness World Record that will link all the cities and villages in Romania, with an electric car that is powered by renewable energy producers from the RED Platform. So basically, people that order solar kits can support Christian and his journey around the country by inviting him to their homes and charging him with power, produced with our solar kits, or bigger producers that are on the platform can charge Christians battery with their clean energy produced, by the sun, by the wind, or using hydroelectricity. The idea is that in all of these places, Christian will be accompanied by a local influencer, somebody that people trust, that will show him around, so its also a discovery of nature, a discovery of Romania’s most beautiful places, all at the same time powered by clean energy. This project and this campaign, we hope to receive a lot of awareness and we are going to offer tools for people to get registered on the platform so people that want to support Christian can download the app and use their free MWAT to support Christian. There will be events in major cities, where people and companies will be invited, and we will talk about the platform, and what are the benefits, and of course at the end of the tour, there will be a representative from Guinness that will document the new World Record.
Denis: So, in essence, this is a major marketing push for RED, and at the end of it, we will present a big unveiling.
Armand: Exactly, it’s a major marketing push in order to attract as many users as possible during the next two months, we are going to be running like crazy trying to onboard as many users as possible, and again I just want to mention for everyone in our community, please download the app and start referring RED so that when the campaign is finished, we will have as many users as possible that are trading KWT and that are buying MWAT.
Denis: So, that will be available at the end of it.
Armand: Of course.
Denis: People actually wanted for you to expand a bit upon the updates that will come gradually for the beta going into the full launch.
Armand: A lot of the features will be rolled out in the next 2 months, starting with consumer and producer accounts validation and supplier switch module, and of course the blockchain side, and the producer side.
Denis: so, regarding the beta, will there be a desktop version for the platform? From what I understand, it will be more or less universal. You can access it on your phone, you could access it on your desktop, so just to confirm it will multiple platform support.
Armand: Of course, it will be desktop, but it’s also going to be a mobile app because we think, we hope, that users will mostly use the platform, while on the go, using their mobile and mobile penetration is increasing.
Rareș: The desktop version will also be responsive, so if you do not get for the app for a certain reason like running Windows phones or whatever, you can still, open your browser, login and see the platform itself on your mobile phone.
Denis: From what I understand now, the beta will be accessible to all, not only Romanian citizens that people have speculated but as many as possible, everyone is invited.
Armand: Of course! Everyone is invited.
Denis: Another question that perhaps we have already answered given that we will be gamifying the app quite a bit, everyone likes achievements, I'm guilty of it as well. Possibly others in this room too.
Armand: Yes, that’s an important word, gamification, because this is going to be a feature of the entire platform. We want to gamify the way people think about energy, the way energy is created, the way, the way energy is used, and the way energy is sold and transferred.
Denis: Energy should be fun, it should be interesting to use.
Armand: It should be simple.
Denis: Simple and interesting.
Armand: Exactly, we have the technology, we have the Sun, why not make it simple, why complicate it.
Denis: Another question that came up; would real energy storage play any role in RED’s model?
Armand: First of all, the equipment that we are going to provide, like the solar kits, they come with several features like people can add a battery pack or they can add a mining rig. So, you can either store the energy in batteries and become self-sufficient living off the grid, or you can store that energy by mining MWAT which should generate more revenue than just selling the energy back to the grid. It brings a layer of added value. Just think about the fact that a normal household is using energy in the morning and in the evening because people go to work in the day. So you have two peaks, a morning peak, and an evening peak, while a solar installation is producing its peak around noon, so actually the solar peak misses the two peaks that a household has as a consumption point, so we want to use this energy which otherwise would be wasted, we want to use it for companies and energy buyers on the platform that have a use for that energy that’s produced during noon. The user can choose to mine MWAT with the energy that’s not used. When I say mine, it’s not actually mining MWAT. It’s going to use computing power for various projects and our company will provide MWAT instead which we will source from our exchange.
Denis: Indeed, the cap of 500 million is still up and running. There’s no change.
Armand: Of course, there’s no change in the cap. No new MWAT will be printed or minted, there’s not going to be any inflation, Denis.
Denis: One of the last questions on the beta, are there any specific elements of the beta you require more feedback on than others? People would like to know how they can help.
Armand: I think the best thing that our community can do right now, is spread the word. Have as many referrals as possible, so that our user database grows. Our plan is to reach at least 50,000 users of the platform in December when we launch it.
Armand: There will be an announcement next week regarding a partner from Australia which is an expert in Solar and has developed a model for securely financing fraction ownership projects including a special chip that utilizes blockchain technology, but all of this will be announced in a special article on Medium, we are very happy to have found such a partner that can also develop and help expand our platform in Australia and New Zealand.
Denis: So more important partnerships coming up for RED.
Armand: more important partnerships coming up for RED, we were basically expanding on all fronts. We are also working on the business side. We recently set up another company in Bulgaria and in Hungary. These companies are in the process of getting licensed. The idea here is after we launch the platform fully in Romania, we want to be able to launch it in as many countries as possible next year.
Armand: Okay Denis, thank you so much. So guys, thank you for listening. We have to get back to work because there’s a lot to be done. Any questions that might come up I’ll answer on Telegram. Next week, we’ll make the formal announcement of our new partners in Australia. So don’t forget to download the app.
Thank you so much for your support and have a nice day.
RED — Send and receive energy, worldwide.
