Nextbigfuture spoke with John Chappell, Director of Business Development – Energy at BlockApps.
BlockApps is a leader in Enterprise Blockchain. They were incubated out of Consensys in 2015. ConsenSys is the leading Ethereum software company. Blockapps has an easy-to-use, powerful Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform on the market called STRATO. BlockApps has partnered with all major cloud platforms (Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform) and is a founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (the world’s largest open standard blockchain organization).
BlockApps has a product for using blockchain to trace carbon offsets. This is called TraceCarbon.
TraceCarbon can be used to track emissions from all sources for large companies and also track projects for the reduction of emissions. A company can have emissions from thousands of oil and gas wells, pipelines, trucks and rail. Emissions can be reduced by reducing losses of gas at the well or in the transportation of the product or at plants. There can thousands of things and millions of events and actions. There are many things to reports and many things to track and understand.
A company can get a better understanding of what is happening in fine detail and get an understanding of what can be done to improve.
Smart contracts are programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. BlockApps use smart contracts to automate the execution agreements for how actions, events and reporting show all happen.
These processes are complex, standards will take years to fully define and are still in development. BlockApps TraceCarbon has been implemented and enable companies to define the processes and adapt to standards and handle various by jurisdiction and integrates with dozens and hundreds of regulatory parties and third parties.
Prior IT systems have not been up to properly and efficiently handling the complexities and demands of digital tracking of complex and sprawling physical systems. Physical energy and emissions are millions and perhaps billions of sources and signicant events need to be recorded daily or more frequently. There needs to be an entire world of tracking and recording mirrored in digital systems. TraceCarbon and BlockApps are enabling this challenging technical solution. There are also a lot of complex and demanding compliance and regulatory documentation requirements.
There needs to be a ton of documentation and tracking to understand and justify carbon offsets.
Blockapps performs this kind of detailed tracking and documentation for many industries.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
I have problems with terms like "carbon off-sets", it's an inherently abstract "thing". It has multiple definitions (Which, IMO, IS the problem). Pin it down, make that something people can emotionally "grab", or they imagine could grab them). Be honest, the last time someone you did not know very well, who gave you a hug, for you it was likely socially awkward. But you DID notice that… My point.obb1960
First time here, haha
It's a good thing this technology could never be used by governments to track dissidents and political enemies…
Is the surface of a planet the right place to collect solar energy, to be power beamed where needed, and thus solve the Earth's C02 problem?
Question – if I build a giant wind turbine with blades full of Balsa Wood that is clear-cut from the Amazon Rainforest – Do my offsets automatically cancel out? Or, do they cancel out over time.
Do I have to run my windmill a certain number of years before they offset the environmental damage and exploitation incurred to build it?
Or, are we just going to pretend that it was Green from the start like we always do?
Might be an interesting mechanism for a Carbon Added Tax (CAT) or Carbon Added Fee (CAF) if it’s going to be rebated to everybody and it should be distinguished from a Tax that goes to government. This might better target where Carbon emission occurs within a supply chain fine tune the effect at layers before the final user price.